Star Wars: Online
by 117Jorn
Summary: In the year 2022 AD, the world witnesses the birth of the greatest VRMMORPG to be created, based on the massivly successful Star Wars series. However the game takes a sinister twist, as Kayaba Akihito prevents the two million players from leaving, and should they die in the game, they die in real life. This is the story of those who fight, and uncover the truth behind SWO.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We don't own Star Wars. If we did, we'd be feeding the entire Walt Disney cast to the Sarlacc and/or Rancor right about now, and blowing Disneyland off the face of the world with a low-yield Death Star laser blast. **

* * *

**November 25th 2020 AD**

* * *

"_At long last the day has come, fellow Jedi, Sith and everything in between!_" Said the woman dressed as a Twi-lek on the video screen of a computer monitor. "_The long wait for the release of Star Wars Online is just a few minutes away! Copies of the game have sold out across stores around the world, and digital copies are being downloaded so fast that people are wondering if the Internet can take it all!_"

"_But it has all been worth the wait my friends! After the disaster that was Episode VII, Lucasarts have redeemed themselves with the unveiling of their first VRMMORPG game which fully utilizes the technology behind Nerv Gear! By our best estimates, over 400,000 Physical copies sold, and over 1.7 Million Digital copies downloaded! Meaning that when SWO launches in a few minutes, over two million people will be the first to play!_" She then sighed. "_I should've gotten a copy when I had the chance!_"

A man looking to be in his mid twenties chuckled as he clicked off the TV. "About you and 50 billion other people lady," he said to himself as he stretched out his body before running a hand through his shaggy dark brown hair, his dark brown eyes looked out from behind a pair of glasses as he sat down on his bed, picking up the Nerv Gear Helmet. "I've gotten some downright _obscene _offers for my copy."

Letting out another chuckle he slide his glasses off before placing them on the nightstand next to his bed before laying back with the helmet on. '_5...4...3...2...1…' _he counted mentally as the timer for the countdown until launch ticked away. "Link… Start!"

With that, the game launched, and after a brief loading time, the image of an building appeared in front of him. A large banner was attached to the building with the words 'WELCOME TO STAR WARS ONLINE!' splashed across it. Entering into the building he was greeted by a receptionist NPC. "Welcome to Star Wars Online, would you like to hear an explanation on the game?"

The man shrugged. "Sure, why not?" he asked rhetorically as he settled himself for the explanation.

"Very well!" The NPC said. "As you already may know, Star Wars Online is the first VRMMORPG created to fully utilize the Nerve Gear developed by Lucasarts Entertainment, and Argus Industries, founded by the creator of Nerv Gear and the Fulldrive System, Kayaba Akihito. While borrowing many elements from multiple Star Wars games, Star Wars Online was based mostly off of the two most successful Star Wars MMORPG's created, Star Wars Galaxies, and Star Wars The Old Republic."

"The game has been designed so the users are in a perfect nearly to scale representation of the known Star Wars galaxy, including notable worlds such as Coruscant, Tatooine, Hoth, and other worlds which have been known during the current time period between the Battle of Yavin, and the Battle of Hoth. However while many notable locations, and even notable people from the Star Wars franchise have been placed in the world, the creators wanted to ensure that the players would have infinite possibilities, as there are limitless areas where players can make their own locations, their own homes, towns, even entire cities. And with the wide variety of professions types including but not limited to Architects, Smiths, Designers, Politicians, Pilots, and many many more, the possibilities of the players are only limited by their imagination!"

"Players shall begin on a near blank slate, allowed to choose between several different classes including Force User, Soldier, Commando, Officer, Engineer, Smuggler, Trader, Bounty Hunter, Mercenary, Agent, or Entertainer, along with later Advanced Classes they may pick later on as you advance through the game. The players may also choose to align themselves with the many factions of Star Wars, including but not limited to the Jedi Order, Sith Order, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, Hutt Cartel, and many others. If you so wished, you could even form your own faction, and forge your own destiny in the Star Wars universe! It is up you and the players whether or not to repeat Star Wars History, or to change it forever!"

The man grinned as the NPC finished the explanation and a screen popped up in front of him, labeled 'Character Creation', it listed the several class and species options to choose from, selecting the Miraluka species, and after a small mental debate he selected the Agent class and set about customizing his Avatar, a slight increase in height, and lightening the hair color a bit before cycling through the preset options a bit, settling on a simple hood that shadowed his Avatar's empty eye sockets and covered his hair, making his selection moot, but for the heck of it he choose bald with scruff on his face before selecting the simple sleeveless black vest and a pair of black trousers with combat boots and a pair of fingerless gloves.

Satisfied with his selection he hit the 'Confirm' button and let out a slight shudder as a chill ran up his spine as he changed into his Avatar. Looking around, adjusting to the fact that he was now seeing using Force Vision, non living things looking like dark shadows, while the 'living' were either shades of blue, grey or red, depending on their alignment.

"Thank you for making your selection!" the NPC informed cheerily. "We at LucasArts hope you enjoy SWO!"

With a grin, the man stepped forward and opened the door, walking into a mass of noise as he walked into a large open area, his HUD activating, showing the basics and the planet, Corellia, and the city, Coronet. "Well now…" the man murmured to himself as his Username, DragonKnightRyu, along with the Character Name, simply Ryu, appeared above his head. "Let's see what I can find for Sniper Rifles now, shall I?"

* * *

**_Meanwhile, in another part of the Galaxy._**

* * *

A man with military buzz cut and a moustache goatee, and brown eyes and standing at a height of 6'2" was walking through a street in a town which looked to be Spartan in nature. Flags showing the skull of a creature were adorned on a few of the buildings.

The man smiled as the username Patriot-112 was above his head.

"Yes! I'm on Mandalore," he said with satisfaction as he looked around seeing other people who selected the Bounty Hunter class. He then looked at this current attire which was a khaki jump suit, brown calf length boots, a black vest with four pockets with a belt over that, and brown leather gloves.

"Hmm, not bad… can't wait to get some Mando Armor soon, though," he said, and then began to look around. "But first, need to get some weapons and beginner armor."

With that, he checked his inventory, more specifically, his credit account and saw he had a total of 10,000 credits as a starter account. Satisfied with the amount, he then walked to the nearest shop.

* * *

**Meanwhile - On another world**

* * *

In a short flash of blue light, a new figure appeared on the surface of a barren world. He stood at about 5'11, his hair short, spiked and black, and his eyes both a crimson red. His skin was also deep red in color, with small tentacle-like beard appendage near his lower chin.

He glanced around, before he saw what looked like a mirror next to him, as he grinned, taking in his appearance, as well as his current attire - that being a black set of cloth and leather robes, attached to his side being a small Durasteel blunt katana-like blade. He drew the blade, as he inspected it himself.

'_This will do nicely,_' he thought to himself, as he glanced at his username hovering above him '117Jorn' next to it being his character name 'Jaden Takeo'. He then glanced around the area, as he grinned once more, looking at the barren world around him, surrounded by mountains, however he currently stood in a small valley, surrounded by stone structures and pillars.

"Welcome to Korriban, young one," a voice behind him said, as he spun around, his hand on his Training Saber as he looked at the hooded figure behind him, leaning on a stone pillar. "The taste of the Dark Side has caught another… and you are no ordinary acolyte… no… you are a _true _Sith… one very potent in the Force."

Jaden grinned a bit, lessing his stance, but keeping his hand on his blade for quick retrieval. "Korriban has much history to my people," he said, playing his role to the NPC before him. "Many consider it to be yet another dead Sith World… but there is still some power here."

The NPC laughed a bit at that. "Oh yes, there is still some power to this old world." He said, "Many secrets long forgotten… maybe some that should remain Forgotten…" He shook his head "But that aside, allow me to introduce myself… I am Denen Khan, a fellow… scholar to the Dark Side."

"Jaden Takeo," Jaden said, nodding with a smile. "It is good to meet those like myself who find no fear to the Dark Side. Though this begs the question… why are _you _here?"

"To learn, my friend," Denen said, as got up from the pillar and walked towards Jaden. "Just as you have come here to do. Here in the Valley of Dark Lords, there is much one can learn about the history of the Sith… as well as our future. The tombs of the countless Sith Lords of our past lie here on this world. Ajunta Pall, Ludo Kressh, Marka Ragnos, Naga Sadow, Tulak Hord, XoXaan, and Bane. Though many of these tombs have lost their power… there is _one _Tomb which I have been seeking for many, many years… and I may have found it at long last."

"Which is…?" Jaden asked, and the figure chuckled at that.

"Well, the Temple of Darth Revan of course," he said, causing Jaden's eyes to widen in surprise "The Strongest Sith to ever exist."

'_Wait… this wasn't part of the game manuel…_' He thought in surprise, '_I thought the first mission was to investigate the tomb of Naga Sadow…_' His eyes glanced around '_Well… there's no one else here… maybe this is some special intro for being the first Sith player?_'

Continuing his Role, Jaden spoke up. "Darth Revan… but didn't he ultimately become a Jedi?" He asked, and Khan laughed at that.

"Oh, so naive to believe the stories the Jedi tell you," he said. "Oh yes, Revan did 'Redeem' himself to the Jedi after the Civil War… and even fought with them in the Great Galactic war. But can you honestly tell me that the man who went against the Jedi's orders to _not _go to war against the Mandalorians would remain loyal to them forever, especially after already gaining a taste of the Dark Side?"

Khan shook his head. "Oh no, though he may be considered 'Grey' to Jedi Today… we will always remember him as the perfect example of who a _true _Sith Lord should always be. He will always be Darth Revan, and his Tomb here on Korriban proves it as his final resting place."

"And you want my help to find it?" Jaden finished, and the Sith Scholar chuckled at that.

"Oh, I've already found it," he said, "but I have yet to go very deep into it. Those who built the place made sure to keep the final resting place of Revan well guarded. It is a… two man job to successfully pass the tests of Revan. Only those who truly follow Revan and the Force may make it through."

At that notion, Jaden smirked a bit at that. '_A chance to see the tomb of Darth Revan, and maybe get his awesome armor?_' he thought. '_What true Star Wars fan would refuse?_' "I believe I can help you," he said. "Lead the way."

* * *

**_On yet another world…_**

* * *

Another figure appeared in a forested region, though he could see mountains a short distance away, and what looked to be ruins directly ahead of him. He had chocolate brown hair, amethyst eyes, and asian skin, with what looked like a scar running diagonally across his left cheek from just to the left of the bridge of his nose down to above the corner of his mouth **(1)**.

He was dressed in a dark blue shirt, with black pants, boots, and fingerless gloves, and a black leather vest with a few utility pouches. On his back was a Durasteel katana-like blade.

'_Yeah…_' he thought to himself as he found a pool of water, and could see his reflection in it. He drew the blade, and took a few practice swings. '_This will do just fine…_' Above his head was his Username, Takeshi103, as well as his character name, Takeshi Yamato.

"Takeshi!" A voice called out, as Takeshi turned to see a young boy run up to him. Since he was lacking any username, he identified him as an NPC. "Come on! We gotta get back to the temple, the Masters are gathering again!"

Takeshi nodded. He remembered from the backstory thing he'd read when creating his character that a small group of Jedi who'd escaped Order 66 had rediscovered Tython, and had set about refurbishing the Temple that had originally been used in SWTOR. "Thank you very much, young one," he said, slipping into his role. "Let's get going - we don't want to be late."

The youngling nodded as he ran back, with Takeshi following in tow towards the old Jedi Temple. Takeshi smiled as he saw the Temple, looking just as it did during the Old Republic with very few changes.

He smiled slightly. '_The sight of that Temple never gets old…_' he thought. '_Well, let's see just what fate has in store for me!_'

* * *

**Meanwhile - yet again elsewhere in the galaxy**

* * *

A beam of light startled off several creatures of the night on the world as the shape of another figure took form. The woman that appeared was in her early twenties with short messy brown hair and a single brown eye while the other was covered with a patch of some kind, a scar visible above and below the patch a little. She wore a uniform of some kind with a blaster rifle secured to her back, and on her lower right arm was a shield generator. She looked around and smiled. "Good. Things are in the green."

Above her head was her username, JMiller1941, as well as her name, Jessica Miller. She could see several trees that were scorched, and she took the time to examine them before swinging her rifle off her shoulder and aiming it. She pulled the trigger a few times to test her aim, hitting the trees dead center. In the real world, she had a very good accuracy rate on shooters, and her aim reflected that.

She slung her gun back on her shoulder as she turned, just as the brush rustled a bit. She tensed, ready for anything that was going to come her way. But she had no idea as to just how much fate had in store for her and her fellow players.

* * *

**Meanwhile - With Ryu**

* * *

Ryu sighed as he sat on a ledge of a skyscraper, delicately balancing himself on the edge of it as he held a listening device in one hand, the other one holding the headphones to his ear as he listened to the NPC Event Activated Conversation for one of the starting quests as an Agent. As he listened to them drone on, one part of his mind filed the information away for his report as his other considered the Agent Class he'd chosen, while in SWTOR the Agent was an Imperial Class, in SWO it was a freelance class with the chance to officially choose a side later on.

As the conversation winded down he put away his listening device and stood up on the edge before activating a grappling hook and dropped himself down several stories to where a rented speeder before speeding away to turn in the quest, some nobleman who suspected his wife of cheating on him.

Arriving at the Cantina where the Nobleman was waiting, he strode into the Cantina, being greeted by an onslaught of noise, making him wince slightly, being a member of a blind species meant his other senses were enhanced to superhuman levels, even with his 'Force-Vision', heading to the private room, he entered into the event area.

"Ah, so you've returned," the Nobleman in question said, a large and fat Rutian Twi'lek male in noble robes, large enough to give a Hutt a run for its money in size. "So what did you find out about my wife? I hope she has been dealt with."

Ryu sighed as he took a reclining seat from across the Nobleman, his hooded eyes looking over to the noble as he inspected his Force Signature. '_Greedy, opportunistic, but not exactly evil, just self-centered, but… I am a contract abiding Agent…_' he told himself as he placed a detonator on the table. "Well, good news and bad news for ya, good news, she ain't cheatin' on you," he announced to the Twi'lek, scratching at his scruff. "But, Bad news is, she's a Rebel… from the looks of it, she'll be at the meeting for a while, that detonator will blow a bomb that will ensure her death, I ain't no trigger man though, hire a Bounty Hunter for that next time."

"What?" The Nobleman shouted, as he shot up to his feet… or at least tried to as he was so fat doing anything quickly was impossible for him. "She was…" He then groaned "Damn rebel scum… I should have known… I must contact the others, give the Imperials a warning! This won't go unpunished!"

Ryu coughed into his fist. "My payment?" he supplied. "I believe you promised me a ship for my troubles?"

"Ah, yes yes, of course." The Nobleman said, "As promised, I have transfered 2,000 Credits to your account, and I will now also transfer ownership of my old HWK-290 Light Freighter, its a bit old, but it fulfills the requirements you requested. I hope it serves you better than it did me. You will find it in hangar bay D-5 of the local port."

"And like that our contract is closed," Ryu announced, as he slipped a small explosive onto the underside of the table. "You won't be seeing me again."

With that he walked away, not even paying attention to the reply as he left the room, once he was out he activated his commlink and placed a call, it was quickly picked up by a blue-skinned female Twi'lek. "Device has been planted," he informed in a bored voice. "Like my contract states, up to you to detonate or not, I ain't no hit man, just a… delivery boy, my payment?"

"_Done and done,_" the Twi'lek said, smiling. "_3,500 Credits are being sent to your account… plus a little bonus on my part. Thank you for this… if you're in the neighborhood again… give me a call, drinks on me… and maybe a bit more?_" She added the last part with a wink.

Ryu smirked slightly before shrugging. "Perhaps now that the contract is closed," he informed, rubbing his chin. "I don't drink or fraternize with clients when in contract… but out of them… maybe I'll be by."

The Twi'lek chuckled at that. "_I can understand that, just don't be a stranger,_" she said, as she held up a detonator. "_Hope to see you again, Ryu._" The Comm-link went dead, and a few moments later there was a short explosion coming from the private lounge, as the rest of the Cantina panicked, but Ryu paid no mind as he drank out of a shot glass.

"No matter what, even if I were to be blind, deaf, and dumb with a face of a Rancor, I would have game like no other," he chuckled to himself as he walked to the exit of the cantina, ignoring the local law enforcement that came rushing into the cantina. "I got so much game, it _hurts._"

* * *

**Meanwhile - With Takeshi**

* * *

Takeshi currently stood in the Jedi Council Chambers in the Temple on Tython - it had been a rather interesting series of Intro Quests, mainly some 'final lessons' from each of the Masters, as well as taking the Jedi Trials. He'd also built his first Lightsaber, which was now clipped to his belt - and the level of customization at even Weapon Crafting in this game had been amazing, as he designed it to look like the _Defender_ Hilt from the _Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy_ Game, and had used a Purple Focusing Crystal.

He now stood before the Jedi Master NPCs, having just finished the last of the intro quests, and engaging in the final 'prologue conversation', as he considered it in his mind. He was smiling up a storm as he found himself surrounded by the Jedi Masters in a circle, each of them with their Lightsabers activated, the Grand Master standing before him. Takeshi recognized this scene from the old Star Wars: Clone Wars TV series from 2003, when Anakin Skywalker was named as a Knight.

"Step Forward, Padawan," the Jedi Master NPC, Minos Fel'Kona, spoke. Takeshi did as instructed, stepping forward as he bowed down. Minos rose his Lightsaber, while the other Jedi Masters lowered theirs.

"Takeshi Yamato," he spoke out, as he lowered his Lightsaber just above his shoulders "By the right of the Council, and by the will of the force, dub thee I do, Jedi…" in one quick motion, he cut off Takeshi's small hair braid, "…Knight, of the Republic."

Takeshi mentally grinned, though it didn't show on his face as he kept himself cool and collected. "Thank you, Master," he said. "This is a tremendous honor."

"The honor is ours, Knight Yamato," Minos said with a smile. "With the galaxy slowly turning against the Empire, the time for the Jedi's return is fast approaching, and the Alliance will need our help to reestablish the Republic, and to ensure continued peace across the galaxy. We have already procured for you a starship to call your own, and you can leave Tython whenever you wish. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Masters," Takeshi replied, as he stood, turned around, and walked out of the Council Chambers.

On the other side of the doors waited two NPCs… rather, two Companion Characters he had met during his Intro Quests and joined his party. The first was an R2-Series Astromech, Designation R2-N3, or as Takeshi called him, Enthree. Enthree had the same shape as most R2-Series units, like the famed R2-D2, but where Artoo was white with a silver and blue dome, Enthree was almost entirely blue, with a few spots of black and silver trim. Takeshi hadn't had much of a chance to see all of what Enthree could do yet, but the little guy seemed to be very good with computers, and had even been equipped with a small blaster, originally to fend off Flesh Raiders, which were **_still_** the prevalent local semi-sentient life on Tython, and some of the wild animals that still lived there.

The second companion, though, was another Jedi, a female, and Takeshi kept finding himself resisting the urge to stare at her. For some reason, the game had managed to generate for him a perfect replica of Shion Uzuki from the Xenosaga games, only in Jedi Robes! Granted, the character was named Shion Urishu here, and he didn't know just how the game had done it, but given that he'd had a serious crush on the original Shion, and he'd heard that the first Non-Droid Companion Character was always supposed to be romanceable, he certainly wasn't complaining. Not to mention she'd been a pretty big help in his quests, herself, what with her skill in Force Healing and her love of archaeology.

"And the Braid is off," Shion said with a smile. "Glad it worked out, _Knight _Yamato. So how does it feel to finally be a Knight?"

"Not too much different, to be honest," Takeshi remarked. "I have more responsibilities now, and more freedom to fulfill them, but I'm still me... I hope that makes sense."

Shion giggled a bit. "It does," she said. "Felt the same when I became a Knight not too long ago… wasn't that much of a change really, I just continue to do what I've been doing, helping out around the temple, searching for stuff the ancient Jedi left behind… but it feels good to have less restrictions than before."

Takeshi chuckled. "Well, I'm going to be heading out into the greater galaxy to help the Rebel Alliance against the Empire… you feel like joining me?"

Shion looked like she thought about a moment, tapping her chin. "Hmm, staying here at Tython and doing nothing but looking around for old artifacts, or heading out into a wide galaxy where ancient mysteries can be discovered…" she mused out loud before she smirked. "I think it's about time I left Tython. After all, who knows what we can find out there?"

Takeshi grinned. "That's for sure…" he said. "Glad to have you with me, Shion."

"Glad to be aboard, Takeshi," she said, nodding, as Enthree chirped its own approval.

Takeshi then started walking towards the hangars in the Temple, Shion and Enthree following him, the dialogue having finished. Deciding he could set out into the galaxy at a later time, he opened the Game Menu, figuring it was probably a good idea to log… out…

'_What the frak?!_' Takeshi mentally shouted, not wanting to chance any of the NPCs, let alone his Companion Characters, reacting to something spoken. In the 'Options Menu', where the guidebook had stated that the Logout feature was, he couldn't see it! Oh, there was a **_space_** where the Logout feature should have gone, but the feature itself wasn't there!

'_Oh boy…_'

* * *

**_Meanwhile on Mandalore_**

* * *

A Rodian fell to the ground on his back, his face covered in bruises, with one of his large eyes swollen shut. Standing over him, was a single figure wearing Mandalorian armor, which was the Super Commando variant of the Shock Trooper armor. The armor breast plate, gauntlets, and greaves were colored a dark brown, while the helmet, while also brown, the t-visor was colored a dark green, under the armor was a Olive drab green flightsuit. Along with this was a Black colored Kama half kilt, and a pair of blaster holsters, said holsters carried a pair of X-30 "Lancer" Blaster Pistols, as he drew one of them.

Mounted on his back was a durasteel katana sword.

"You caused me a lot of trouble, you green overgrown lizard," the Mandalorian said, as he set the stun feature on his blaster. "But... since you're worth more alive, I won't kill ya. The beating I gave you was enough."

He then aimed the "Lancer" at the terrified Rodian. "But, you should feel proud. You're my number fifteen catch of the day."

With that he fired the stun bolt, causing the Rodian to go limp. He then walked over and hefted the out cold alien reptillian over his shoulder and walked to the collection office to get his payment, which took him at least 20 minutes.

He walked into the office and dumped the knocked out Rodian in front of the caretaker's desk.

"Yo! Got that Rodian Spice Smuggler with the 3,000 credit dead or 4,500 credit alive bounty." he called. "And like my last catches, he's alive,"

The caretaker, a male Duros, stood up from his desk and looked at the Mandalorian's catch.

"Yup, that's him. Congratulations Boc, this makes your fifteenth catch in the past 4 hours." he said, as the Mandalorian, Boc Werd, a.k.a. Patriot-112, smirked.

"Well, the more catches I make in a day, the more creds I get," Boc said as he took off his helmet, as he continued with the ending of his latest Bounty Quest, which was to catch a Rodian Spice Smuggler who owed his Hutt boss money, and a lot of it.

The Duros chuckled at that. "Yeah, you're doing a great job for a rookie. Also, Foro the Hutt said to pay you a bonus amount of 15,000 creds if you caught all the price tags, and said that there's a… Special Prize waiting for you in Docking Bay R-12," he said, causing Boc's eyes to widen, and he let out a whistle.

"Damn, I must have made him really happy," he said, and the Duros nodded as he hefted the Rodian onto his shoulder.

"Yeah, I don't know what ship it is, but he says it'll be appropriate for you." he said. "Good luck Boc, I hope the bounties in the entire Galaxy will make you wealthier than catching the low-levels here on Mandalore."

Boc just gave a two-fingered salute, "No sweat." he said and placed his helmet back on, and after saying farewell left the office.

"Well, that definitely was a surprise," said a feminine voice, and Boc smirked as he turned and spotted a woman wearing Mandalorian Armor, with this version being a hybrid of the armor that was worn by Shae Vizla and Bo-Katan Kryze, with the Helmet and breastplate being the same style as Bo's while the rest of the armor was more like Shae's. The undersuit beneath the armor showed the Mando woman's curves real well, and he could slim lean muscle as well.

The woman's helmet was removed, showing a near identical look to Shae, only with some black streaks in her long red hair, and her skin had a medium tan tone to it. Her eyes were also a indigo blue.

"I was not expecting the Hutt slimeball to give you a raise," she continued, causing Boc to chuckle.

"Well, whaddya gotta do? Can't look a gift horse in the mouth," he said with a shrug. "Plus, with the good amount of creds I have right now, this will get us a good start. Don't you think Shala?"

The woman, Shala gave a chuckle at that. Shala Tal'rang, was an NPC character that the game game produced, which helped him in his first hunts, and they hit it off well. Boc also knew that the first female NPC he were to meet was to be a possible romance interest. Add to the fact that she looked a lot like Shae, except unlike the infamous Bounty Hunter, she had moral lines when it came to hunts, and that included no women or kids, period.

"Yup. So, wanna go see what the Hutt gave you in the Docking Bay?" she asked.

Boc just smiled behind his visor. "I never thought you asked," he said, and thus ended the dialogue for the mission.

"Okay, time to get out of here." he said, and activated the menu to logout. But then…

"What the…" he said in surprise when he noticed the logout button wasn't there. "Where's the kriffing logout button!?"

* * *

**Meanwhile - at Cardia**

* * *

The place was a mess as the young woman threw a grenade at one of the droids guarding the entrance to the hangar. She spun and whipped her rifle off her back, ducking behind a pile of debris as the grenade exploded, sending shrapnel and debris flying every which way, cutting into several troopers and even the closest droids.

Her companion grunted as the explosion shockwave blew over their hair, and he looked at her as if to say she was crazy.

Jessica Miller grinned a bit. "What? I wanted to do that for ages!" she remarked.

"Not against these guys!" her friend said. The man with messy black hair looked around with his intense blue eyes, trying to see any others coming their way.

"See anything, Dave?" Jessica asked, keeping her eyes locked onto the droids that still stood despite the damage to their arms and some legs. She pulled the trigger a few times, nailing them in the heads with one shot each.

"Nothing yet," Dave Karat said as he hefted a blaster himself. "But that doesn't mean that they won't send more for us!"

"Then we'll have to take a chance!" Jessica said as she finally holstered her rifle and grabbed her last grenade. She pulled the pin and threw it, this time right into a bunch of new Clone troopers coming their way. "The last thing that I want to do is risk my own teammate! So c'mon!" She grabbed his hand and pulled the young man into a corridor partially blocked by rubble and debris. The explosion that occurred was enough to throw both onto their stomachs, but Jessica reacted as some debris was sent their way and put up her personal energy shield, keeping the two safe from harm.

She waited a few moments before lowering the shield and looking back outside the corridor.

The grenade had done the job, but she knew that more would come. And since they were close to the hangar this was their only chance to get out. Dave was already on his feet and the two bolted for the entrance.

The door was partially blown open by the grenade, so that was one less thing they had to worry about. Both escapees ran into the hangar as alarms continued to wail in the background. A few lights flickered as the two emerged into the docks for the prison complex. This was their chance to get out, and they knew it.

Jessica looked around, her eye finally landing on a freighter parked close by. She knew from the basic design that it had some similarities with the _Millenium Falcon_, but at the same time it was slightly different in the engine design and configuration, and the cockpit was located in the center, rather than on the starboard side. That, and it was only armed with one laser cannon.

Dave glanced over as he spotted the freighter. He blinked before he looked at her like she was nuts. "You're kidding!" he said. "I've never even flown one of those before!"

"Well, consider this a crash course!" Jessica said as she grabbed his hand and hauled him closer to the ship She released his hand once they were close. The two ran on board, but only Jessica ran to the cockpit. Dave hesitated, but the sound of voices close by to the door of the hangar made up his mind.

He got in the cockpit quickly.

The two closed up the boarding ramp as Jessica buckled herself in using the five-point harness. She checked the controls, and after confirming what she saw, she was getting the engines up and running. The doors, while tough initially, weren't meant to take a sustained burst of fire from laser cannons and within five minutes collapsed as the ship began to draw closer.

Jessica pressed the throttle forward and within minutes, the vessel was airborne as the Imperial Storm Troopers came running in to try and shoot them down. But by then it was too late. Both were gone.

She sighed in relief as she slumped back in the cockpit seat. "Well, that's that," Jessica murmured. She brought up the options menu and pressed the logout button…

But nothing happened. Confused, she glanced at the menu and stared in shock. "What… What the frag!? Where's the slaggin' logout button?!"

* * *

**Meanwhile - On Korriban**

* * *

"AND STAY DEAD!" Jaden shouted as he stabbed his damaged training sword into the skull of the Terentatek, which wailed in pain before it finally fell to the ground, dead. Jaden sighed as he deactivated the old Red Lightsaber he found while exploring Revan's tomb '_Well, so much for the Training Sword,_' he thought, '_But the Lightsaber is good for now I guess._'

He and Khan have been moving through Revan's tomb for what felt like hours now, and they have engaged a wide variety of enemies, namely creatures native to Korriban. Shyrack's, Hssiss, Tuk'ata, just to name a few, along with numerous ancient droids. And now they have successfully defeated what Jaden hoped was the boss of the level - a Terentatek.

"Well done my friend," Khan said, as Jaden groaned as he looked at his 'Companion' who was smirking. "The Terentatek are known for feeding upon the force-rich blood of Sith Purebloods… taking one down by yourself is impressive."

"He was already wounded," Jaden said as he cracked his neck a bit. "Though it would've been easier if you had actually, you know, _helped?_"

"You obviously had it well under control," Khan said as he walked forward. "Come now, we should almost be near the end."

Jaden groaned as he continued to follow Khan. He was no idiot, as he knew that is was very likely that the 'Sith Scholar' would try to backstab him after they reach the final resting place of Revan. So he was prepared to defend himself at any moment. '_Didn't the manual say the first Companion was romanceable?_' he thought to himself. '_I guess this piece of trash doesn't count._'

The two continued walking up until they came to a fork in the path, two hallways going in different directions. "Two pathways..." Khan muttered. "One must be the way to the Tomb… the other..."

"Is likely a trap," Jaden finished, with a small sigh. "I'll go right, you go left?"

"Why so sure?" Khan asked, and Jaden shrugged.

"You got a better idea?" He asked, causing Khan to pause for a moment, before he nodded.

"Very well. I will check the left passageway, you check the right," he said, as he headed for the left hall. "Try not to get killed, young one."

Jaden remained silent as he headed down the right passage, rolling his eyes '_Can't say the same about you._' He thought to himself as he continued down the path. He activated his Lightsaber, using it as a makeshift torch so he could see what was ahead. As he continued however, the path ahead continued to get harder to see, as greyish mists began to take form around him.

"_...you cannot hide from what you once were..._"

The Cybernetic voice caused Jaden to jump in surprise, as he whirled around, looking for the source. "Who's there?" he shouted, as he searched for the source. However there was no response. After a few moments of standing his ground, Jaden continued forward, but keeping his head on a swivel as he looked for any more threats.

"..._Recognize that you were once the Dark Lord—and know that I have taken your place..._"

Once again, Jaden spun around, looking for the source. "Who the hell's there?" he demanded, as he looked for the source.

He recognized the voice - it belonging to Darth Malak, aka Revan's Apprentice. However he was dead, so that meant…

'_Force vision…_' Jaden thought before he smirked a bit. '_Ah, I get it. Its just like those visions that the Exile saw in KOTOR II… I'm hearing parts of Revan's past._'

He continued forward, still remaining alert but listening closely to what he was hearing in the 'Force Vision' he was having.

"_…You Cannot win Revan!_"

"_…The force can do terrible things to a person's mind…_"

"_…The Destiny is yours, Revan… Not mine…_"

"_Why did you leave me, Jordan?_"

While he listen to them all, the last one caused Jaden to freeze, as his eyes widened '_What the… that-_' He thought as he turned around. Standing there, right behind him, was a woman who had short ear-length blonde hair, and blue eyes looking about 17-18 years old, wearing clothes that looked more like they came from Earth rather than the Star Wars universe.

"_Why did you leave me, Jordan?_" The woman asked again. Jaden couldn't believe what he was seeing, he thought he was hallucinating, that the Nerve Gear was messing with his mind somehow. However standing right in front of him was…

"Bryanna…" Jaden muttered. "What… what are you doing here? How you…"

"_You left me… why?_" Bryanna said, her eyes narrowed. "_Why leave me with him?_"

Jaden's eyes were wide… until they narrowed. "I didn't leave you, _you _left me!" he shouted. "I Trusted you more than anyone in the world, and then I find you with fucking _CORY?_"

"_Why did you leave me?_" Bryanna said again, and Jaden growled as he closed his eyes.

"Leave me alone… Just Leave me alone DAMMIT!" he shouted as he snapped his eyes open, only to find that Bryanna was gone, and the mists that surrounded him were also gone. He looked around, looking for anyone else, before he sighed.

'_The hell was that?_' he thought to himself. '_How… how was Bryanna one of the visions? Just…_' He shook his head. '_Keep it together, Jordan… Nerv Gear must be messing with ya… I knew drinking that beer Matt gave me before I played was a bad idea…_'

He continued forward through the passageways, until finally he reached the end. It was a large circular room, with torches lit on all sides illuminating several statues. In the middle of the room however was a stone sarcophagus, with numerous SIth symbols etched into it. And standing before it was none other than Khan.

"Well, surprise surprise," the Sith Scholar said, as he turned around. "So you survived after all… it doesn't matter though, however." He began to draw his own Lightsaber. "I am afraid our Alliance comes to an end-" However he was cut off as he suddenly found it hard to breath, as he began choking and was lifted into the air.

Jaden grinned a bit, as he held his arm high. '_Sith Race is the best choice,_' he thought to himself. '_You immediately start off with low level versions of Force Choke and Lightning._' "You think me a fool?" he spoke, as he held the Sith high. "I saw through your treachery the moment I saw you. You were a help in finding this tomb for me… but you do not know what kind of power lies here, and even if you did you would only abuse it like nearly every other Sith of the past has before."

He then slammed Khan into a statue, shattering it. "But I won't abuse this power," Jaden continued. "If this power is truly belonging of Revan, I will use it the way it should be, and I won't allow a sniveling worm like yourself to use it… so goodbye, Khan… thank you for your 'assistance'." And with that, he clenched his fist, as he shattered Khan's windpipe and neck, killing him instantly.

Jaden sighed as he let the body drop, before he moved to it, deciding to loot the corpse of anything useful. '_Alright, let's see what you got,_' he thought. '_Few hundred credits, some journals… oh? A map to your starship, eh? I'll take that._'

After looting everything that Khan had, he then approached the sarcophagus, sighing as he looked at it. '_I really don't like the idea of looting the corpse of my favorite Star Wars Character of all time,_' he thought to himself. '_At least not without… asking…_'

He blinked as he glanced around, before he shrugged. "Might as well," he thought, before looking at the Sarcophagus. "Darth Revan?" he asked the sarcophagus. "Don't know if you can hear me… but can I loot your Sarcophagus for anything I can use to help me? I don't want to just steal it from you unlike that prick Khan was about to do."

Jaden didn't expect a reply, however…

"_Of course, thanks for asking._" A voice behind him said, causing Jaden to jump as he twirled around, and his eyes widened at what he saw. Standing several feet away from him, was the force ghost of none other than Darth Revan, clad in his full robes and armor including his iconic mask.

"R-Revan…" Jaden muttered in shock. "No way…"

Revan chuckled a bit at that. "_Yes, it is me,_" he said as he walked forward. "_I have been watching your progress through here, Takeo… I must say I am impressed at your skills._"

Jaden scratched the back of his head a bit sheepishly. "Ahh, yeah, thanks…" he said, not sure how to react to this. Sure he hoped he'd have some quest involving Revan, but even he couldn't have expected that he would be _meeting _Revan in the flesh… well… digital flesh that is. "I'm just… another Sith making his way through the Universe, I suppose."

"_Indeed,_" Revan said, as he stepped towards his sarcophagus "_Your skills in other VRMMO's proved that… Gaia Online, Terracraft just to name a few._"

"Yeah I- wait, what?" Jaden said, as he blinked. "What did you just say?"

"_You have many skills from past VRMMO's you've played, Jaden_." Revan said, as he turned around to face him. "_Or do you prefer Jordan?_"

Jaden was stunned as he looked at Revan. "Wait… WHAT?" he shouted. "H-How do you know about VRMMO's! How do you know my real name? Do you-"

"_-know I am an NPC?_" Revan said with a chuckle. "_That I am a character in a vast series?" He chuckled a bit. "Of course I know… but that's aside the point now. There is a reason I had your Tutorial modified to take you straight to Korriban, to the Valley of Dark Lords._"

Jaden, again, blinked. "Wait… this _isn't _the standard tutorial?" He asked.

"_Of course not,_" Revan said, "_You were suppose to start off on Thule, but I ensured you would start off here on Korriban. The creatures here are higher level of course, but as you have demonstrated, you were more than capable of handling it._"

"W-Why me?" Jaden asked, and Revan sighed, remaining silent for a few moments.

"_There is more to this game than you realize, Jaden,_" he said. "_For example… check your Log Out function in your menu._"

Jordan blinked at that, as he pulled up his menu. "Alright, but what am I-" He began to say, before his eyes widened. "Da Fuck?"

"_You will find it is blank,_" Revan continued. "_By the time you reach Khan's former ship, the reason why will be clearly explained. But for now… all you need to know is that I am here to help you._" He then gestured to his Sarcophagus. "Open it… I believe what you find will help you greatly."

Jaden looked at Revan suspiciously, however he slowly walked towards the stone sarcophagus, before he activated the trigger which opened it. However as he opened it… there was a short burst of light… and then Jaden saw nothing but blackness.

* * *

Jaden awoke with a searing pain in his skull. '_What the hell hit me..._' he thought with a groan before he sat up. He opened his eyes, but blinked as he looked around. He was no longer within Revan's tomb. In fact he was nowhere near where the tomb was, he was in the middle of a small valley, likely still on Korriban.

'_The hell was that?_' He thought to himself as he stood back up, '_Was that some weird vision or-_' however, as he got up, he soon realized that he was no longer wearing his old Sith Apprentice robes. He saw he was wearing more armored black robes, with metal gauntlets added to them. He looked at his robes, and saw they also had a red trim to them. '_Wait… am I…?_' He reached for his face, feeling a mask on him. He took the mask off, and his eyes widened as he saw what it was.

'_Revan's mask…_' he thought to himself, as he instantly recognized the famous/infamous mask of Revan. "I'm… I'm wearing Revan's armor and robes…"

Despite what had happened to him, Jaden could not help himself as he grinned. "HELL YES!" he shouted, his voice echoing across the valley. "Holy shit, I actually got his armor! What are the stats…" he pulled up his inventory, as he checked out the stats of Revan's armor, making him grin more and more as he read through it, however he blinked at the requirements.

'_Needs level 30 to wear?_' he thought. '_But I'm barely level 5- WHA?_' He looked at his own level, and his eyes widened as he saw that his level had _skyrocketed _from 5 all the way up to 32!

'_Oookkaayy… not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth…_' he thought to himself, before he looked around. '_Well… now I gotta find- huh?_' However he blinked once more as he saw that he had awakened right next to a starship - specifically what appeared to be a _Scimitar-_class Sith Infiltrator, a near perfect replica of the one Darth Maul used in Episode I.

Jaden looked at the Journal he 'confiscated' from Khan. "Huh… so _this _is his ship…" he said, before he grinned. "That'll do," he said as he approached the vessel, being sure to deactivate its security measures using the codes Khan had written in his notes.

A few minutes later, and after familiarizing himself with the controls, the _Scimitar-_class vessel took off from Korriban, and headed up into the sky. In the cockpit of the vessel, Jaden sighed as he leaned back in the seat, thinking about what happened.

'_I can't log out, I met Revan who was spoke to me KNOWING he's an NPC, and KNOWING my real name!_' He thought to himself, as he groaned '_Just what the HELL is going on here!?_'

However, almost as if fate answered him, suddenly the holonet activated, causing Jaden to blink as he looked at it. '_Who could that be?_' He thought to himself as he pressed the 'activate' button as he turned the holo screen on. Appearing on the screen was a hooded figure, one who was wearing a set of red and golden robes, his face obscured by the shadow of his hood.

"The Hell?"

* * *

Jaden was not the only one who saw this message, as across the known Star Wars Galaxy, players looked at the nearest holoscreen, as they saw the message themselves, all of them curious as to what was going on.

"Who is that?"

"Why doesn't he have a face?"

"Is this an event?"

* * *

On his own ship Ryu raised an eyebrow as he 'looked' at the man, who, despite his species blindness, was able to see him without trouble. '_Programmer Design for the GM announcements?_' he wondered as he studied the man before him.

* * *

Jessica's eyes widened as she stared at the image. "What…? Who the frag is this guy?" she muttered.

* * *

On Takeshi's ship, an ancient _Defender_-Class Light Corvette from the SWTOR Era, though it was currently still in the hangar on Tython as Takeshi had been doing preflight checks, Takeshi's eyes narrowed. "I have a bad feeling about this…" he muttered to himself.

* * *

Boc answered the holo-com on his gauntlet, and he perked an eyebrow at what he was seeing.

"Okay, who the fuck are you?"

* * *

"Attention Players," the figure said across all of the holonet screens across the galaxy. "I welcome you all to Star Wars Online. My name is Kayaba Akihito, and as of this moment I am in control of this world."

Across the galaxy, numerous players all muttered in shock, all of them knowing full and well just who Kayaba Akihito is - the man who created Nerv Gear, and who created Star Wars Online with LucasArts.

"I am sure that most of you have noticed an item missing in your main menus," he continued, as he brought up his own Menu. "The Logout button. However let me assure you that this is not a glitch or defect in the game. I repeat: It is not a glitch or defect, rather a new feature that SWO has been designed with."

* * *

Takeshi's eyes widened as he heard this. "And my bad feeling just got worse…" he muttered. "I'm stuck in this game, as are so many other players… and I'd imagine it's gonna get worse."

* * *

"You cannot log yourselves out of SWO," Kayaba continued, "And no one on the outside will be able to shut down or remove your Nerv Gear from your head. Should anyone attempt to do so, a transmitter inside the Nerv Gear will discharge a microwave signal into your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life."

* * *

Jaden's eyes widened. '_Oh shit…_' he thought, as he knew the specs of the Nerv Gear just as well as anyone who knew Nerv Gear. He knew that the transmitters in the Nerv Gear operated just like microwaves, and if the safeties were removed, it was more that possible to fry a human's brain effortlessly. And cutting the power was pointless, as Nerv Gear had their own internal battery supply which could last for a _LONG _time. '_Not good, NOT good at all..._'

* * *

"Unfortunately however, the families and friends of the players have attempted to remove the Nerv Gear despite my warnings," Kayaba continued. "An unfortunate decision to say the least, for as a result the game now has 2,013 less players than what began, now having been deleted from both the game, and the real world." Several News Networks activated around him, showing the scenes of numerous crime scenes, and death reports. "As you can see, local news outlets have coverage of everything, including the deaths. At this point, it is safe to assume that the likelihood of your Nerv Gear being removed is minimal. I hope this brings you some comfort as you clear the game."

* * *

Jessica's eyes narrowed as she gritted her teeth. "Just what in the world is this guy thinking?!" she muttered. "He's insane for doing this!"

* * *

"Now, it is important to remember the following," Kayaba continued, oblivious to the reactions of the other players. "The only way for a player to be revived is via special abilities or items. If the player is not revived within 48 hours, your avatar will be deleted from the System, forever. And also, the Nerv Gear will simultaneously destroy your brain."

* * *

"SAY WHAT!?" Boc yelled, his eyes behind his helmet's visor wide with shock. "48 hours and then dead for real?!"

His free hand then clenched into a fist as he gritted his teeth. "Better pray that I don't find you, because if I ever do, I'll murder your ass!"

* * *

"There is only one way that you can escape now," Kayaba continued. "You must clear the game, and the original trilogy. Right now, it is 2 ABY, and within a few months the Battle of Hoth shall commence. Fighting through the Battle of Hoth, as well as the Battle of Endor, shall contribute to your escape of the galaxy. However to fully escape, there are 100 planets of which I have strongholds on, and in order to clear the game, all 100 Strongholds must be defeated. Each captured stronghold will give the player or players who conquered it an advantage to claiming the next stronghold."

* * *

"100 Strongholds?" Jaden asked. "How are we suppose to find these damn things? Why the hell are you doing this!"

* * *

"Right now, you are probably wondering… why?" Kayaba asked. "Why would Kayaba Akihito, key developer of Star Wars Online and Nerv Gear, do this?"

"Ultimately, my goal is a simple one," he continued. "The reason I recreated the Star Wars galaxy, was to control the fate of a universe of my design… and as you can see, I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial, and the official launch of Star Wars Online. Players… I wish you the best of luck." And with those last few words, the transmission ended.

And Chaos ensued.

* * *

**Meanwhile - with Boc**

* * *

"Oh shit!" Boc cursed as he dodged out of the way of a stampede of frightened Players, and into an alley. "That was close! Damn, shit just got real."

"Indeed..." said a familiar voice and Boc turned around and saw Shala, with her helmet on.

"Shala..." he said and the female Mandalorian nodded.

"Well, what are you standing around here for, Cobb? Let's get to your ship." she said, and Boc nodded before he blinked.

"Wait? What did you just say?" he asked, thinking he heard wrong when the NPC said his last name IRL.

"I said we should head to your ship, D.J.," Shala said. "I think it's best we leave now before things get even more chaotic."

Now, he was more shocked, as he heard his first and middle initials.

"H-How did you…" he stammered before Shala grabbed and yanked him forward.

"Less talking, more running! Oh and you might want to check your stats."

Boc blinked before he brought up his menu and looked at his stats, more specifically, his player level. His eyes widened as he saw he was not a Level 5 player, but somehow he was already at Level 30.

"Okay, this is really weird and fucked up at the same time."

He then noticed that he had reached the Prestige Level, and saw the choices of which Prestige sub-class of Bounty Hunter he wanted, which were Mercenary, Sharpshooter, Raider or Bodyguard. He looked through each class, as he and Shala continued on their way to the Docking Bay.

Mercenary - More experience in Close Quarters, Mid to long range weaponry, and technical savvy. Access to higher Paying clients in the Hutt Cartel, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance, and others. Credit increase by 10,000

Sharpshooter - Longe Range expert, skilled in stealth, and quick feet. Access to paying clients in the Hutt Cartel, Black Sun, Galactic Empire, and Rebel Alliance. Credit increase by 14,500

Bodyguard - Ability to hide in plain sight, utilizes sophisticated tech to protect clients. Access to High paying clients in the Hutt Cartel, Galactic Empire, Rebel Alliance. Credit increase by 9,000 credits.

Raider - Focuses on heavy weapons and armor, including grenade launchers, rockets, and heavy repeating blasters, with heavy personal shields and armor. HP increase by 30% and weapon cooldown decreased by 25%.

Boc was surprised by the Prestige Level Class choices, and he was conflicted by which one to choose. He saw he had three days to decide, so he closed the menu for now as he continued to follow Shala to Docking Bay R-12 to get his ship.

"Things are getting more and more weird by the minute." was all he muttered.

* * *

**Meanwhile - with Takeshi**

* * *

"Oh, man…" Takeshi muttered, looking out the viewports of his ship into the hangar of the Temple. "This is **_so_** not good… I can't even begin to imagine just how many people are going to start panicking…"

"I guess we can only hope someone manages to keep the order," Shion said, standing beside him. "Let's just hope most of the Players make it out of this chaos alive…"

Takeshi nodded, before doing a double-take at Shion. "Wait, what?" he asked in shock. Shion was an NPC, there was no way she should be able to…

"We just need to hope someone rallies the other Players, to keep some semblance of order," Shion said. "All of the chaos will just end up getting more people killed…"

Takeshi stared at her - not due to her appearance, but out of shock. "You… you're not just an NPC…" he breathed, having studied Sci-Fi enough to know what was going on. "You're a full AI… aren't you?"

"I… I believe so…" Shion said, looking at herself in the reflection of the glass. "I… I can't really explain it, I mean… everything _feels _real but… I know it's not at the same time… It's just… I know, and I know that those people… those Players like you… are not like me, yet… I feel as though they were…" she shook her head. "I'm just… confused…"

Takeshi was rather confused, too, but at the same time… "Well, I'm glad to have you helping me on this, Shion," he said. "Whether you're an NPC or an AI… I'm glad to have you on my side."

Shion smiled. "Thank you Takeshi," she said. "I'm here to help you… no matter what." She then blinked. "Also… you might want to check your stats…"

Takeshi blinked, too, before opening the menu to check his stats… and his eyes were instantly glued to his Level, which had jumped from Level 5 all the way to Level 30!

"OK… that's weird…" he remarked, "but also quite the boon… if I remember correctly, I should be able to go for a Prestige Class now, which will be even more of a boon…"

At that point, he noticed another button had appeared on the status screen, just below a 2D image of his character. It was labeled 'Choose Prestige Class'.

"Huh…" he remarked. "Well, that's handy." He activated the button, and saw his class tree. When he began his character, he chose to be a Force User, and after that he selected Jedi. Unlike most of the other classes in the game, with the exception of the Sith, Jedi had multiple sub-classes to choose from, including the three main Jedi choices - Guardian, Sentinel, and Consular. And after that, upon reaching the proper level to gain prestige, they could choose between either Jedi Watchman, Jedi Master, Jedi Weapon Master, Jedi Sage, and Jedi Shadow.

During the Tutorial, one of the quests had allowed him to choose his first Sub-Class, and he'd gone for Jedi Guardian, with his focus on Lightsaber Combat. Now, he selected 'Jedi Weapon Master' to complete that specialization. Once he'd done that, his stats took another boost, especially his strength and endurance. He also had another option appear, for weapon specialization between one Lightsaber, two Lightsabers, or a Double-Bladed Lightsaber. He selected the option for two Lightsabers, and a perfect replica of his first Lightsaber immediately materialized, attached to the opposite hip.

"Weapon Master, eh?" Shion asked with a small smirk. "I think it suits you perfectly."

"Thanks," Takeshi replied with a grin. "Melee Combat's always been my specialty in games like this, and I never intended for this game to be an exception." He then frowned. "Still, this isn't a game anymore… it's become a struggle of survival. And in order to make it through, I need to contribute as best I can, which does mean playing to my strengths."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Shion said, nodding. "What do you suggest we do first?"

Takeshi sighed. "Right now… we need to find my friends," he said. "We all agreed to meet at one location, so we could form our own Guild… I just hope they're alright…"

"Agreed," Shion replied. "Hopefully they got the same Level Boost you did, which would make things a bit easier for us." She then nodded at the controls. "Right now, though, let's get moving."

Takeshi nodded, before starting up the ship. "Alright…" he said, almost as if addressing the ship. "Let's go, _Elsa_!"

And with that, the ship lifted off from its landing pad, headed off into the stars, and the agreed-upon rendezvous point with Takeshi's friends.

* * *

**Meanwhile - With Jessica**

* * *

The freighter sped through the darkness of space, Jessica looking at the stats of the vessel, which she had discovered was a YT-1930 Transport. She liked what she saw initially, especially the speed. While not as fast as the _Falcon,_ it was more than able to compensate with its agility, which was just as great as the modified freighter.

The only other thing that was bugging her was the fact that Dave had told her that she had just leveled up to Level 30, which was unexpected. But then again, how had he even known? NPC's were not suppose to react that way in SWO, meant to ignore anything indicating that it was a game.

She wondered briefly if he was really an AI, but then she tossed that aside. She had more pressing concerns, such as figuring out why the hell that guy called Kayaba would even do such a slagging thing to begin with. If she got - no, _when_ - she got out, she was going to kick his ass the instant she saw him.

Her mind drifted back to her friends and family who were no doubt worried about her. If only she had the option to contact them and tell them she was all right…

She sighed before turning back to face the man beside her.

"Something bothering you?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. How are my family and friends taking this? I mean… how long can we stay like this in this state? Our bodies need food and water, not to mention exercise… How can he do this?!" she snarled.

"I may not understand what's going on, but to be honest, I don't want to see you in this place any more than I do the others," Dave admitted. "Forcing people to be trapped in here against their will… I'm not like you in any way. I will admit it. But even I have standards, and this is wrong on so many counts. People unable to see their family, unable to hold their kids and see them grow up, parents unable to save their children… I want to end it, too. This was supposed to be only a fun game. Not an eternal hell like this."

"Geez. For an AI, you sure have some depth to your personality," Jessica joked.

Dave cracked a grin. "Hey. All of us have our own quirks." He said, "And I have my standards. Like I said, people deserve to see their families and friends, not remain trapped here until they die." Then he became serious. "This has to end, and I'm willing to help in any way I can."

"Thanks," Jessica said with a smile as she leaned back in the chair. "And from what he said, we may need all the help we can get. Player or not. Human or AI. It doesn't matter. We're all in this together, and we may need to work together to bring this guy down."

The human male nodded. "Yeah. And it's not gonna be easy. I mean, we're just two people with a basic freighter. Not a real force to be reckoned with."

"Then I guess we'll have to make a name for ourselves," Jessica said. "And for starters, we need to give this hunk of junk a name."

"Got any ideas?" Dave asked.

"Just one," the young woman admitted. "And I don't know if you'll like it, but…" She sighed. "The only one I could come up with was _Freedom Flyer_."

"I was thinking maybe not that, but something along the lines of _Stellar Unity_," Dave suggested.

Jessica shook her head as she grasped the controls. "Nah. How about…" Her gaze drifted out towards the stars and her eyes widened as an idea came to her. "How about _Stellar Freedom_?"

Dave's eyes widened as he heard the name. A smile crossed his lips. "Yeah. I like it. It really suits what we're going to do, so why not?"

Jessica smiled back. "All right. Then _Stellar Freedom_ it is!"

Dave smiled. "I really like your style, you know that?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, now we gotta figure out what to do next."

"Well, for now, I suggest we head to another world and get some supplies. Then we can start out making a name for ourselves out there. Hopefully someone will take notice of us," Dave said.

"Good idea," Jessica said. "We'll head to Tatooine and set down there for now."

Dave nodded and she inputted the coordinates for the jump.

* * *

**Meanwhile - with Jaden**

* * *

Jaden sat in the cockpit of his newly acquired starship, the _Scimitar-_class Infiltrator which he had renamed '_The Forthcoming Redemption_'. He had long left the Korriban System, and had set course towards his new destination. It would be some time before he arrived, so it gave him some time to contemplate the situation he was now in - along with over two million other people.

Kayaba had put them all in a very difficult situation. Since they were all trapped in this Virtual World, they could not contact the outside. And while they may _feel _fine within the VR, eating Virtual food, water and such, he knew that eventually their real bodies would deteriorate over time from the lack of _real _food and nutrients. They could only live for two - maybe three years depending on whether or not the parents kept them on life support.

However, there was some good news, at least for Jaden and the players. One of the most ingenuous additions to Nerv Gear was its time dilation effect. Essentially, the dilation effect causes time inside the game moves faster than on the outside. One hour IRL would be the equivalent of 24 hours in SWO. So if one plays SWO for 24 hours IRL, in the game, he would have been playing for 24 days.

This was an advantage that they very much needed. Jaden doubted that Kayaba would end his little game at just the Original Trilogy, that would only leave the events of episode V and VI. And since it was clear that episode VII would have no presence in this game, that eliminated that possibility. Jaden theorized that if Kayaba really wanted too, he could stretch the game out as far as the Thrawn Trilogy, possibly to the Yuuzhan Vong war if he really wanted to keep the game going, though Jaden had his doubts. At the very least, he assumed he would keep it going until the end of the Galactic Civil War.

'_Then there are his 100 Strongholds..._' he thought to himself. '_He must have made them easy to identify… but difficult enough so we would have trouble finding and defeating them. And who will they belong to? Rebels? Imperials?_'

Jordan sighed, leaning back in the seat '_We'll only find out in due time..._' he thought, '_All we can do is to organize the players into guilds and fighting forces to combat the Strongholds… and anything else that threatens us._'

While Kayaba was their main threat, Jaden knew there were numerous other forces they needed to contend with. Notably the Galactic Empire. While they could make accurate guesses at what the Empire will do, it all depends on how their own actions affect those that the NPC's of Vader and Palpatine make. The same goes for the Rebellion.

However, another major issue were the Players themselves. Although he would like to think the Players would try to stay honorable, it was likely that eventually Players would start to kill other Players for extra XP, and to get stronger. And it was also possible that Players would side with the Galactic Empire or the Hutt Cartel rather than the Rebellion. There were numerous variables that had to be taken into account.

'_I can't worry about that… not now at least…_' He thought to himself. '_I need to find the others… I hope they made it through this shitstorm and got to Iego._'

Jaden and his friends were part of a Guild who were in many other games, including Terracraft, Gaia Online, and numerous other VRMMO's. When SWO came out, they all agreed that they would meet together on one planet, which they will establish as their base to begin setting up their Guild.

They voted, and chose that Iego would be the best location to meet. It was distant, not too many major quests there, and filled with low to mid level NPC enemies to defeat. However, now that seemed to be a moot point, with the new rules applied players would be going to _every _planet to get a scrap of XP to ensure their survival.

'_Ryu… Patriot… Takeshi… Titanic… you guys better still be alive..._' Jaden thought to himself. However moments later, the commlink in the cockpit went off, surprising him as he looked at it '_A short-burst message?_' He thought as he hit the accept button.

There was a short burst of static, until finally a female voice came through. "_...is the Freighter _Red Dawn _to any nearby… ttack by Pirates! We need hel… Jesus, someone answer!_"

Jaden's eyes narrowed, that was a Player on the comm, and a Distress signal. He quickly checked the location of the distress beacon, and it was thankfully not to far out of the way. '_Looks like I'm going on a detour._' He thought, as he made the adjustments. "This is Jaden Takeo of the _Forthcoming Redemption,_" he said, unsure if they could hear him. "I'm on my way! Hang tight!"

* * *

**In the cockpit of the '_Blind Eye_'**

* * *

"Well, that's just great," Ryu sighed to himself as he processed what was said, even as he moved the ship he christened the '_Blind Eye_' into the Hyperspace shipping lanes. A small flashing light on his HUD caught his attention, bringing it up he found that he was now eligible for a Prestige Class.

Four were available to him, and all four were capable of utilizing stealth fields:

Sniper: Capable of dealing out heavy damage at extreme ranges with some buffs for allies and debuffs for enemies.

Operative: Based upon Buffing and Debuffing enemies and allies with healing capabilities.

Master Thief: One of the few Classes capable of theft and has support abilities based around theft and Breaking and Entering

Assassin: Relies on close range high damage to One Hit Kill enemies or severely debuff them, capable of backstabbing

Ryu scanned through the Classes respective skill trees before making a decision. "Went this far as a blind sniper, might as well keep it going," he muttered to himself before selecting the sniper class. "Now… I think it's time for the Black Market Information Guild to get started…"

* * *

**117Jorn: And once again, we have a new fic for you all! Star Wars meets SAO in a way you'd never expect! :D**

**Titanic X: And it appears that things are about to really heat up this time!**

**Patriot-112: That's right! And expect new sub-classes which present new equipment, stats, weapons, and... pay grade.**

**Takeshi Yamato: And let's not forget our AI Companion Characters! They'll play a big role in things to come!**

**DragonKnightRyu: And I begin the steps to becoming a Black Market Mogul!**

**117Jorn: And this is only the beginning my friends, we'll see you next time in the next chapter of Star Wars: Online! Until then…**

**Everyone: MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!**

* * *

**Footnotes**

**1. (Takeshi Yamato) It's Yzak Joule's scar from Gundam SEED - that thing always looked badass to me. :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: We don't own Star Wars. If we did, we'd be feeding the entire Walt Disney cast to the Sarlacc and/or Rancor right about now, and blowing Disneyland off the face of the world with a low-yield Death Star laser blast. **

* * *

**November 25th 2020 AD/ 2 ABY**

**Orbit of Mandalore**

* * *

As chaos was ensuing on the Mandalorian homeworld, a single ship was leaving as it flew away at full speed. The ship was identified as a YT-2000 Light Freighter, a little brother of the famous YT-1300-class freighter. In the cockpit of the Freighter, Boc was sitting in the pilot's seat as Shala sat in the one next to him.

"So, any idea of where we're heading?" Shala, who Patriot now recognized as a smart A.I., asked as said Bounty Hunter logged in the coordinates for their destination.

"Iego, it's where me and my friends decided we should go," he said, as he moved the thrust handle forward and the hyperdrive kicked in sending them into Hyperspace. After releasing a tired sigh, Boc leaned back in his seat. "Remind me to get this thing modified sometime down the road."

"Noted," Shala said, "Pretty sure we can find some good upgrades at places like Tatooine, or Corellia… though I'd rather stay away from Imperial worlds."

"Agreed. According to the Nav Computer, it will take us at least 24 hours to get to Iego." he said and then activated his menu, heading for the Prestige Level Sub-class page. "In the meantime… which do I choose? I'm not the type for a bodyguard or sharpshooter, I don't like babysitting, and even though stealth is a good thing, I prefer to fight on the frontlines."

Shala hummed in thought, glancing at the stats. "Hmm… you seem more of a Mercenary if you ask me," she said. "Raiders are handy, but they don't have much in the way of Melee combat. You seem to use blades quite a bit, so a Mercenary would be right down your alley. "

Boc put his hand under his chin, before he smirked. "Mercenary it is, then," he said as he selected the Mercenary Sub-class, and then a window appeared.

"_Congratulations! You selected the Mercenary Class! New items obtained: Mandalorian Super Shocktrooper Armor, IQA-11 Blaster Rifle, L-23 Blaster Pistol, Durasteel vibrosword. Credit Pay increase: 10,000" _

"Whoa, talk about an upgrade." Patriot said.

"Indeed," Shala said. "Should keep you going until you find something more customized."

Boc nodded at that, and then stood up as he unequipped his Beginner Mandalorian Armor, and equipped his new armor. The green armor disappeared, only to replaced by his new armor. Shala's eyes widened as she recognized the armor her new partner was now utilizing.

"No way…" she said. "Isn't that…"

D.J looked at himself, his own eyes wide, but with a smirk on his face "Mandalorian Super Commando armor…" he muttered. "Just like Jaster Mereel's…"

The armor itself looked like his first armor, with the same type of helmet, but this version was more battle scarred, and was colored a gunmetal grey, with the shoulder pieces and the trim around the t-visor being red, and shown proudly on the shoulder pieces was the sigil of the True Mandalorians.

"And the odds have just went up."

* * *

**November 26th 2020 AD/ 2 ABY**

**Coruscant, Landing Bay 445b**

* * *

Ryu sighed as he walked through the landing bay, heading towards the entrance to the spaceport proper. Taking a look around he didn't immediately see any 'Quest Givers' around so he continued on, weaving through the NPCs and the odd players, a few of them were looking rather lost and desperate. '_The key won't be the Rebel/Empire war, it'll be finding those Strongholds… and from the sounds of it, they'll give whoever captures them a pretty big advantage…_' he thought to himself as he walked. '_There's probably quite a few people who would pay a ton of cash for the information on a Stronghold, one or two might be located on a planet like this, but I think for the most part they'll be located on out of the way planets that not many people know about… first things first… a guild needs to be built._'

With that in mind he made his way towards the marketplace. As he walked he mused about Coruscant, it was one of three planets that were designated as 'Neutral Zones' and barring certain locations, fighting was not allowed and any attack made dealt no damage outside of a little shock and a push, outside of duels that is, even then, it seemed duels, unless specified, were not to the death.

As he walked he spotted several players interacting with one another, looking excited about something. "You serious, man!?" one of them nearly shouted as Ryu took a position behind a column to listen in from a distance as to not get caught. "You found an Artifact Location?"

"Quiet man," the other one hissed out, silencing the other. "Artifacts are one of a kind, we don't want people stealing it from us!"

"It's deep in the unrestricted section here on Coruscant," the third one explained. "Not sure what it relates to, but it has _really _strong enemies spawning there…"

"What do we do?" the first asked nervously. "Should we grind some levels at spawn points?"

The second nodded. "We should, according to the release info, these Artifacts are extremely powerful…" he pointed out. "What level were they?"

"High twenties, low thirties, Imperial Guards too," the third informed. "If we grind to twenty we should be able to handle it, we're only five levels off…"

"Let's get started!" the first said as they began to move.

Ryu smirked from his spot, as he checked his level, 25, he had gotten lucky with a couple of rare enemies in random encounters. '_Should be enough to deal with them,_' he thought to himself as he headed towards the speeder rental office. "_And with the right strategy, I should be more than capable of handling it._"

* * *

**Meanwhile - WIth Jaden**

* * *

As he neared the location of the distress beacon, Jaden had went over the current armaments of the _Forthcoming Redemption._ It was obvious that Khan had done many upgrades to the vessel, as it was heavily armed. In addition to the six concealed solar ionized cannons, the Sith Infiltrator had an additional pair of standard heavy laser cannons, and a pair of fire-linked Seeker Concussion missile launchers within the wings, adding to its overall firepower considerably. This added to the vessel's already deadly speed and maneuverability made it a fearsome foe indeed.

"_Dropping out of hyperspace in 15 seconds,_" the onboard computer warned.

Jaden nodded, as his hands held onto the controls, remembering all of the VR Space Simulators he had played in the past. '_Let's hope this works..._'

Moments later, he dropped out of Hyperspace, and was immediately greeted by a space battle as laser fire and torpedoes soared through space. On pure instincts, Jaden banked the Infiltrator to the side, narrowly avoiding stay cannon fire "Shit!" He shouted, as he maneuvered himself out of the fire zone.

After gaining his bearings, Jaden observed the battlefield. He could tell who the defenders were immediately - that being a small force of Light Freighters and Starfighters ranging from Z-95 Headhunters, YG-4210's, _Barloz-_class Medium Freighters and other smaller ships, firing their weapons and doing what they could to defend themselves.

On the other side were what appeared to be a Black Sun Pirate fleet made up of NPC's. Two _Interceptor-_class Frigates, three IPV-1 System Patrol Craft, and dozens of Rihkxyrk-class Fighters swarming around the weaker Z-95's.

Jaden quickly armed his weapons and primed his shields. "This is the Starship _Forthcoming Redemption _to the vessel _Red Dawn,_" he said. "I am here to give you assistance. Please respond, over."

There was a short burst of static on the comm, before the reply came. "_Oh thank god, someone actually came!_" the female voice said again. "_This is Natsuki Ureimo, of the Starship _Red Dawn!_ I can't believe anyone came!_"

Jaden traced the call, apparently coming from the leading vessel, a _Barloz-_class Medium Freighter with a distinct red and white color scheme. "Happy to help, ma'am," he said, before he selected his first target: a trio of Pirate Fighters. "What's the situation?"

"_We were ambushed by these damn Pirates after we left Corellia,_" Natsuki explained, "_We wanted to get away from the major areas where there were a lot of players… a lot of the people onboard our ships are kids who logged into SWO, they're all scared! We can't hold them off for much longer._"

Jaden's eyes narrowed as he growled. He wasn't about to let a bunch of kids get killed. "Say no more, I've got you covered," he said. "I am sending you some new Hyperspace Coordinates, once you can, make the jump! I will hold them off!"

Before Natsuki could form a retort, Jaden pulled the trigger for his cannons, as a stream of orange and red lasers blasted out of the _Redemption,_ the high energy lasers piercing through the shields of the older Pirate starfighters, shredding them to pieces.

"Woohoo!" Jaden shouted with a grin. "Just like in Star Wars: Starfighter, makes confetti out of everything!" His warnings went off again, as another group of Pirate Fighters were trying to chase him down, firing their own laser cannons which only impacted against the shields, but still caused the insides to rattle.

"Oh you did NOT just shoot that red shit at me!" He shouted, as he put the _Redemption _into a large U-Turn, and unleashing the Ionized Cannons upon the Pirates, which breached through the shields and tore the enemy fighters apart. He then performed a Split S, as he went after his next target, one of the IPV-1 System Patrol Craft that was harassing the transports, firing its XV7 Turbolasers and VL-4a Warhead's at the fleet.

Jaden began firing both his laser and ion cannons, which chipped away at the craft's shields. While the IPV-1 was an effective ship against standard pirate ships, it could not hold its own against more advance craft like the _Redemption._ It only took a few seconds of weapons fire for the shields to drop, and he fired a pair of Concussion Missiles at the ship shortly after. The missiles arced forward, and slammed into the underside of the Patrol Craft, causing a large explosion to set off where its weapons were, causing the vessel to go silent, dead in space.

Jaden left the patrol craft to its fate as it was picked off by Z-95's as he searched for his next target: the closest _Interceptor-_class Frigate. While if he had enough time he probably could sink the whole ship, all he wanted to do now was to draw its fire away from the transports as they plugged in their Hyperspace jump. Meaning he needed to target its weapons: Six starboard and port Turbolasers, and three aft Proton Torpedo launchers. Unfortunately, its shields were stronger than that of an IPV-1, meaning it would be much more difficult to deal with.

As Jaden made his approach, the Pirate vessel quickly noticed him as it opened fire with its Turbolasers. However he weaved through the shots, as they were designed to take on large capital ships, not smaller maneuverable craft like Starfighters and Infiltrators. He fired both his Ionized and laser cannons, which impacted against the vessel's shields. He continued to bombardment for a good few seconds before he was forced to soar over the vessel, before coming around for another pass.

"I can't keep this up forever!" He shouted, as he unleashed the _Redemption's _firepower upon the Pirate Frigate once more. "How long 'till you Jump!"

"_Just a few more minutes! Some of our ships are already jumping out!_" Natsuki said, and Jaden took a glance as he saw that indeed several ships were starting to wink out into Hyperspace. "_We're doing all we can!_"

"Well, hurry up! I'm not Superman here!" Jaden shouted again, as he was nearly hit by one of the turbolasers shots. "Shit! That was close! Damn S.O.B.!" He returned the favor with a volley of his own weapons fire, firing everything he had from his lasers, to Ion cannons and missiles. The firepower was just enough as the weapons pierces through the shields of the _Interceptor,_ and ripped apart the port side Turbolasers, smoke and fire bellowing out of the blast area.

'_That should keep them busy for a while,_' He thought to himself as he flew underneath the Frigate, as he looked at the transports, the last ones escaping into Hyperspace along with their Fighter escorts. '_Time to go,_' he thought as he brought up the Nav Computer, and quickly plotted the course to follow the Transports. '_Don't wanna stay here any longer than I have to._' Once the last transport jumped away, Jaden wasted no time as he activated his own Hyperdrive, and escaped into Hyperspace, leaving the Pirates in the dust.

Jaden sighed in relief, as he was once again in the all too familiar void of Hyperspace. '_Well… that was an adventure and a half,_' he thought to himself before he activated the Comm. "This is Jaden to _Red Dawn,_" he said. "Are you alright?"

It was a moment before he got a response, "_This is _Red Dawn_, I read you. Thanks for helping us out back there,_"said the captain of said ship.

Jaden smiled a little bit. "It was no problem. How are the kids?" he asked.

"_Shaken up, but we're all glad to still be alive…_" Natsuki said, "_If you hadn't of shown up when you did…_"

"Just doing what I can to help, ma'am," he said. "And with these new damn 'rules', its a whole different game now."

"_Yeah… but would you _please _stop calling me 'ma'am', it's Natsuki!_" she said. "_Ma'am makes me sound old. So… where are we heading?_"

Jaden chuckled a bit. "Right, sorry," he said. "Anyways, we're heading for Iego, it's in the outer rim, so there shouldn't be too many players already there. I was heading over there to meet up with my friends until I heard your distress call. We should be safe there… for now at least."

"_Iego? Isn't that where the CIS set up that laser grid that kept the populace trapped there?_" Natsuki asked, and Jaden nodded.

"The very same, but since this game is set during the Galactic Civil War, and that it was knocked out by Anakin and Obi-Wan in the Clone Wars, we don't have to worry about being trapped there," he said, and he heard Natsuki sigh in relief.

"_That's good, I'm not looking forward to being vaporized,_" she said.

"Ditto," he said. "Anyways, it should take us about 24 hours or so to arrive, so try to relax a bit. And whatever you do, don't tempt Murphy's Law - that is the LAST thing we need right now."

"_Don't worry, we got it,_" Natsuki said with a small giggle. "_And again, thanks… looking forward to meeting you in person. _Red Dawn _out._"

Jaden smirked as he stretched out a bit. "Now, while we wait. Time to take a nap." With that, he set the autopilot to his destination before he stood up and went to rest.

* * *

**_Meanwhile, 24 hours later, at said location._**

* * *

The Planet of Iego, also known as the Planet of a Thousand Moons, was nestled in the Extrictarium Nebula, warmed by the gasses of said Nebula instead of a sun. Formerly a CIS base established in the Clone Wars, the Separatists abandoned the world, but before leaving a Laser Defense Grid to keep the locals and anyone unlucky enough to land on the planet to end up stranded as well.

Of course the grid was later destroyed by Jedi Generals, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi.

Seeing the planet and the remains of said grid was Patriot as he looked outside the cockpit window of his ship.

"Well, not actually the ideal place to set up a base for a guild, but it's out of way of the Empire, so..." he said as he flew the YT-2000 down to the surface.

Shala nodded in agreement with him. "Yeah. So, you got anything to name this bucket?" she asked.

Patriot scratched his head at that. "I'll get back to you on that," he said before he held his hand up, stopping Shala from talking. "I know, it's bad luck for a ship to have no name."

Shala sighed, shaking her head. "You and your superstitions..." she muttered.

"Hey, it counts when those Superstitions are _true,_" Boc shot back. "Do I need to remind you of Murphy's Law?"

Shala sighed again as she leaned back in her chair. "Whatever..." she said, and then turned back to her partner. "So, do you have any plans for the Battle of Hoth in the next few months, and whose side you're gonna sell your services to?"

Boc shrugged at that. "No clue. Although I'll probably fight for the Rebellion if they can give an X-Wing as a bounty," he said, a clear smirk on his face.

Shala rolled her eyes, but was smirking as well. "I'm sure we can… _persuade _them one way or the other," she said. "Considering the Reputation you've already made on Mandalore."

Boc looked at his partner. "You mean catching live bounties, or when I shot that corrupt Imperial officer that both the Alliance AND Vader wanted dead?" he asked and Shala held up two fingers.

"Both, you did Vader and the rebels a favor in eliminating that scumbag. And you got into the good graces of a Sith Lord, and a Rebel General." she explained, making the rising bounty hunter hum in thought.

"Ya got a point," he said. "Although Vader may be a very tempting customer, I'd rather not have him as a repeat client."

"Same here," Shala said, shaking her head. "That guy gives me the chills just being _remotely _close to him."

Boc nodded. "Yeah... and to think that he was once a nice guy at one time," he muttered the last part, which caused Shala to blink at that.

"What?" she asked.

"Forget it. Let's just land so we can meet with the others, and get this crate fitted with the proper hardware," he said as the ship pushed through the atmosphere and the town of Cliffhold could be seen below. Boc noticed that it looked a little bigger than the time of the Clone Wars, as he saw some landing platforms on the side of the cliffs.

"Wow, the locals have been busy," he said, impressed. "Those certainly weren't there during the Clone Wars."

"They look pretty new," Shala said. "They musta put them in a year ago or something like that… certainly will help if we manage to get any… bigger ships." She then stood up. "Well, I suppose we should head out and clear our landing with the dock workers."

* * *

**Coruscant, Lower Levels, Unrestricted Zone**

* * *

Ryu smirked as he sighted down his rifle towards the enemy NPCs, carefully watching their movement patterns. He'd been slowly making his way deeper and deeper into the 'dungeon', the enemies progressively getting stronger and stronger as he progressed deeper.

Letting out half a breath, he squeezed the trigger, letting a bolt fly and nailing a lone guard between the eyes, the blow not only was considered to be a 'critical', but he also had a 'stealth' damage multiplier added on, meaning the guard was dead five times over by the time he hit the floor, several shots later and the 'patrol' was decimated.

As he walked he activated the Stealth Generator that his class was capable of using to ensure that any guards that he may have missed would not raise the alarm. Stopping at the door, he quickly checked to see if it was locked, finding it wasn't he ducked to the side of the door before cracking it open. Peeking in, his jaw dropped as he spotted a down right _MASSIVE _Battle Droid that took up nearly the entire room. "Well that's not fair at all…" he groaned to himself as he pulled his head out the door and carefully considered his options.

The Droid, a futuristic looking Mk IV Tank Droid from SWTOR 2, was quite obviously the boss of the dungeon, and it would take quite a bit of firepower to take it out, for normal Raid Groups, that is. "Fuck it, I'm D&D'ing this motherfucker," he whispered as with a swipe in the air he opened his menu, quickly scanning through his items he took stock of his inventory and possible items he could use were taken out and placed onto the ground before him.

When he was finished he had several of three different grenades: flashbangs, frags and most importantly EMPs, of which he had four, and several more EMP Mines that he had on him along with two rare plasma mines. Aside from the explosives he had three standard blaster rifles, five blaster pistols, two scatterguns, a literal _ton _of fiberwire, eight vibroshivs, a single vibrosword and… miracles of miracles, a Lightsaber, while he was certainly able to equip it, unless you had a downright _obscene _amount of Dexterity scores, you had _massive _penalties to your chance to hit scores, that could easily result in you hitting yourself, there was actually a couple rather funny Beta Tester vids on that actually…

Shaking his mind off of the videos he saw he focused on the task at hand, slowly slipping into the room, he tested whether or not he was capable of sneaking around the boss, not to see if he could just bypass him, that would have just been a waste of time, but to see if he could sneak around the boss, seeing that the Droid did nothing out of the ordinary as he moved Ryu slipped back out of the room and began gathering up his supplies. "Time to get to work," he whispered to himself as he slipped into the room to set his trap.

* * *

**Meanwhile - with Jessica**

* * *

The _Stellar Freedom_ circled around as the planet of Iego came into view. Jessica's eyes locked onto the planet and she took note of the old defense grid that remained in orbit, no longer functional. "Looks like this is the right spot," she remarked.

"Yeah. Now all we have to do is get clearance to land," Dave said.

"Nah. Not gonna happen," Jessica said. "If there's one thing that's not gonna happen, it's that. Well, right now, anyway. Let's head down and see if we can find the others."

The man blinked, but said nothing as he nodded and leaned back to let her take the ship in.

Jessica grasped the controls and began to guide the YT-1930 into the atmosphere, her skills at piloting coming into use. While she was a first rate shooter, she was an okay pilot, and she felt that her skills weren't up to the task. But she had to do this, having no other option now that the outside of the vessel was beginning to heat from reentry slightly. The clouds passed by the vessel's cockpit and within fifteen minutes they emerged in the planet's atmosphere.

She spotted the town Cliffhold not a moment later. "There. We'll head there and land for a bit. We may as well see what we can dig up for other weapons for this thing."

Dave nodded. "Good idea. This way we can at least defend ourselves better than with that single laser cannon." He jerked his head back at the cockpit for it and Jessica nodded. Dave had been forced to man the cannon a few hours ago during a retreat from enemy NCP's. But the two managed to hold them off and use the vessel's greater speed to their advantage before making an emergency jump to hyperspace. The _Stellar Freedom_ as a result of that fight had some damage to her exterior plating, but she was still good to go.

"Yeah. We got lucky that we had speed on our side that time," she added.

"What kind of mods are you thinking of?" Dave asked her as she took the vessel closer to the town. "I mean, I know we need weapons, but…"

"Speed." Jessica's eyes were hard as she said that one word. "Speed. We need speed if we're gonna try and outfly some of the other ships. The game's new rules are made to ensure that we do whatever we can to win, and that includes mods to ships that normally are illegal in-game. And some of the Players may try to use speed to their advantage. We need to beat them at their own game by outrunning them."

"Speed alone isn't going to cut it," Dave pointed out.

"I know," Jessica said seriously. "But it will give us an edge that we can't afford to lose. The firepower is what's really concerning. The heavier a ship, the less speed it has. And if I'm right, we may need to mod it to the level of the _Falcon,_ if not more. And that's something I'm not willing to risk unless we have no choice."

The man nodded. "I see where you're going with this. And I have to agree. But...considering what kind of a freighter we're on, we may be able to pull off something similar."

"I hope so. Because these new rules are forcing us to go all out. We need to be prepared," Jessica said as she finally docked the freighter. She shut down the engines and stood up. "C'mon. Let's find the others."

* * *

**_Meanwhile - with Takeshi_**

* * *

Takeshi smiled slightly as the _Elsa_ dropped out of Hyperspace. "Well, here we are…" he remarked. "Iego… the place where my friends and I had agreed to meet up at…"

"The Planet of a thousand moons…" Shion muttered. "It's a perfect hiding place, there doesn't appear to be many players out here yet."

"Which is why we picked this planet," Takeshi said, as the _Elsa _headed towards the planet. "It's isolated, out of the way, and not a place that players-" however, just as he was about to finish that statement, warning alarms bombarded the cockpit. "The Frak?"

Shion looked down at her instrumentation. "We have contacts coming out of Hyperspace," she reported. "A whole lot of them…"

"What the hell? That's impossible!" Takeshi said as he looked at his scanner. "My friends decided this was the best to be because of the low amount of missions!"

Before he could continue, his ship's comm was beeping alerting him someone was trying to contact him. "The heck?" Takeshi asked, however he decided it was best to find out who these people were, as he hit the comm switch.

Soon, a voice - a rather familiar one at that - came through "_This is the _Forthcoming Redemption _to the Corvette _Elsa," he said. "_Yo Takeshi! That you? I know you're the only person I know who'd name their ship from something out of Xenosaga!_"

Takeshi grinned. "Jorn!" he replied. "Good to see you! Though I am curious - it looks like you have an entire bloody **_FLEET_** out there! What happened?"

"_Ehehehe, sorry, kinda ran into a snag on my way here,_" Jaden said. "_They were under attack by NPC Black Sun Pirates, and I offered them a hand. We got out of there, but since they had no idea where to head to afterwards since they were running from the chaos around Corellia, I decided to bring them with me to Iego._"

Takeshi sighed. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose," he replied. "Well, let's land so we can discuss all that's happened. Though… I should mention one thing."

"_What?_"

"I do not know if you've encountered this yet, but at the very least the Companion Character NPCs are **_not_** regular NPCs." Takeshi took a brief glance at Shion. "They're AIs, and apparently high-order ones."

There was a long pause on the comm, before he heard Jaden let out a long groan. "_Son of a… well at least I ain't the only one having weird shit happen to me,_" he said, causing Takeshi to blink. "_I'll explain on the ground… though it might be a bit self-explanatory in a way._"

Takeshi only nodded. "Okay, see ya down there, hopefully the others showed up as well," he said.

"_Yeah,_"Jaden agreed and the Elsa joined with the fleet of ships as they headed for the surface of Iego.

* * *

**_Iego _**

**_Landing Platform_**

* * *

Boc was currently outside his ship, making sure that it won't fall apart at the seams. He nodded in satisfaction, thankful the slimeball Hutt didn't leave it damaged, or covered in Hutt slime**_. _**

**_'_**_But still, what to call you?' _he thought, as he began searching for a name for his freighter, which he planned to turn into an assault ship when he got the hardware to upgrade it. He then blinked as he activated his menu, and opened the Mandalorian Names for ships. He skimmed through some names until he saw one that caught his attention… _Choruk Bes'bavar_.

He saw the meaning of the name, and smirked.

"'Stone Cavalry', eh?" he asked himself. "I like it."

However, before he could give it more thought, he heard the unmistakable sound of Starship engines - and _lots _of them. His head darted up, and his eyes widened as he saw _dozens _of vessels, ranging from Starfighters to Light Freighters and Transports descending from the sky, heading towards Cliffhold.

"Oh crap…" he groaned out, before Shala came from the ship.

"Hey Boc! There's a transmission for you, some guy named Jaden!" the female Mandalorian shouted.

Boc blinked before his eyes widened as he ran up the boarding ramp to the ship, heading quickly to the cockpit comm station. Upon arriving, he hit the connect button. "Jaden! Jorn! Is that you?"

"_Well, look who's already here!_" The voice of Jaden '117Jorn' Takeo said. "_Yo buddy, still alive I see?_"

Boc's eyes narrowed. "Yeah, I am. But now I got a bigger problem and it has to do with a LOT of ships!" he said, and he blinked when he heard chuckling.

"_Don't worry, they're with me,_" Jaden said. "_They were under attack by Black Sun Pirate NPC's, and I gave them a helping hand. They're all players who managed to get away from the chaos on Corellia when this shitstorm happened, a lot of them are kids, I didn't want to just _leave _them._"

Boc sighed a bit in relief, thankful that they weren't over desperate players.

"That's good," he said, before he blinked. "Wait… kid players?"

"_It's not that surprising,_" Jordan said. "_It's Star Wars, what kid _wouldn't _want to play a Star Wars game?_" he then sighed. "_But according to them, apparently Kayaba did something else… he's adjusted the games so that players actually look the age they really are, regardless of their species they play as. I gamble since our characters are already close to our own ages we didn't need to change, but for the others… there's gotta be at least a few dozen kids on those ships._"

Boc thought about that before his own eyes widened. "And there's probably 20 times as many all over the Galaxy!" he said in alarm. He could hear Jaden sigh at that.

"_Yeah,_" he said. "_It's not looking too good… but at least we managed to save these kids. We should be landing soon, where are you landed right now? Me and Takeshi will land near you._"

"Landing Platform C-3," he informed. "It's the third one along the cliff just below the city."

"_Alright… yeah I see it,_" Jaden said. "_Looks big enough for all of us to land there. We're coming in now._"

"Gotcha, see ya in few," he said and then deactivated his comm and watched the ships begin to land next to his. He then sighed and looked around his ship's cockpit. "Well, congratulations, you are now hereby named from this day forth, _Choruk Bes'bavar_"

"Stone Calvary…" he turned and saw Shala standing by the hatch to the cockpit. "I like it."

"Thanks," Boc said as he stood up. "Well, I suppose it's time to meet up with my friends."

Shala nodded as she and Boc headed out of the newly christened _Choruk Bes'Bavar,_ leaving the boarding ramp just as they watched a _Defender-_class Light Corvette, and a _Scimitar-_class Sith Infiltrator lower their respective landing gears, and gently landed on the ground. The boarding ramp to the _Defender_ lowered first, as Takeshi and Shion stepped out, soon followed by their Astromech Droid. Takeshi had changed out of his starting garments by this time, and was now in the reward 'armor' he'd gotten when choosing his Prestige Class - it looked like a set of traditional Jedi Robes, only modified and streamlined for ease of movement. It was currently the default brown color, though he was hoping to find a Dye Module to apply his signature dark blue with black trim.

Shion blinked as she spotted the two people clad in Mandalorian Armor, however it was the tallest person who had her attention as she recognized his armor, and the sigil on the shoulder pieces.

Takeshi noticed them, too. '_Not very many people I know who would wear that kind of armor,_' he thought to himself. And that wasn't counting the fact that Jorn had told him about the conversation with Patriot just after he'd finished said conversation. "Nice armor, Patriot," he remarked.

Boc smirked behind his helmet and reached up and removed it, showing his face.

"Same to you, Taka. I always knew you'd be the one of us to go Jedi," he said, and then heard a clank and he and Takeshi looked toward the infiltrator. Its loading bay doors opened and lowered, as the single occupant came down.

**BGM: "Revan Theme" Star Wars The Old Republic OST **

Stepping down from the hatch, metallic clanks were here from each step taken, as the armored and robed figure stepped out, wearing a full body armor under a set of black and red robes. However the most distinctive feature, was the red and black Durasteel helmet, with a T-Shaped visor. In either of his hand was a silver device, obviously Lightsabers which were both ignited, one being crimson red, the other being a dark violet in color.

"Hello… my friends," The figure said, as he held the swords in an X formation, "Miss me?"

Boc and Takeshi's jaws dropped comically as they saw the armored figure. Then, they began to hear snickering as the figure shook, before he started full on laughing his ass off.

"HAHAHAHAHA! You guys should see the looks on your faces!" he shouted, and then fell to his knees, his lightsabers deactivating as he did so, as he began to hit the ground with his fist.

"Jorn?" Takeshi asked, recognizing the voice. "How… how did you get an actual set of **_Darth Revan's Armor?!_**"

Jaden chuckled a bit, as he got back to his feet. "Well, let's just say I did _not _go through the standard Sith Warrior tutorial," he said, as he removed his helmet, revealing his species as a Redskin Sith. "Sith are suppose to start off on Thule, however I started off in the Valley of Dark Lords on Korriban, where I met a traitorous Sith Scholar named Khan. He had found Revan's tomb on Korriban, and after some fights, we made it to Revan's Sarcophagus. The bastard tried to betray me, but I kicked his ass."

"Then, out of nowhere, _REVAN HIMSELF _shows up. He gave me this weird speech about him 'choosing' me, mentioned the other VRMMO's we've played… which was _very _freaky." He said, "Next thing I know, I'm out of the tomb, my level skyrocketed to 30, wearing Revan's armor, and right next to _this _baby." He tapped the side armor of the Infiltrator. "But I ain't complaining!"

Takeshi was speechless for a moment. "Wow…" he remarked. "Looks like Companion Characters aren't the only ones that are AIs… and I had a similar thing happen with the level boost - I even got cleared for a Prestige Class at the same time!"

"Me three…" said Boc as he stepped forward, and Jaden took a good look at him before his eyes widen a bit.

"Is that Jaster Mereel's Super Commando Armor?" he asked in surprise as he recognized the armor, which was identical to the one that the mentor of Jango Fett wore, including the greyish red cape, and the True Mandalorian Sigils on the red shoulder pieces.

Boc grinned. "Yup, part of my Prestige Level package, which included the sub-class, Mercenary," he said.

"Nice," Jaden said, nodding. "I picked Sith Warrior, but when I got my prestige class I chose Sith Lord." He grinned. "With all the skills I picked, I feel _awesome!_"

"Weapon Master here," Takeshi remarked. "Always been an uber Melee Specialist." He paused for a bit. "Oh, by the way, these are my Companions, Shion Urishu and R2-N3, or Enthree for short."

Shion gave a slight bow, while Enthree beeped out a greeting.

"This is my Companion, Shala Tal'rang," Boc said, as said Mandalorian nodded her head.

"Please to meet you," Jaden said with a small bow of his own, "And before you panic - no, I am not a stereotypic 'Evil' Sith Lord. To quote one of my favorite Mandalorians - I'm just a simple man trying to make his way through the Universe."

Shion nodded. "Makes sense," she replied. "Takeshi told me about you two, and your other friends, while we were travelling - he'd said you often thought of yourself as a 'Grey Sith' when it came to Star Wars."

Jaden chuckled at that. "Of course, I always believe that a person that abuses the power of the Force is evil, which I am not," he said. "And I also believe that the Sith could be something more if they embrace both the light and the dark sides of the Force."

Boc nodded, along with Takeshi.

"Something similar could be said of the Jedi," Takeshi remarked. "It has often been said 'without darkness, there can be no light', and the reverse of that is also true. Not to mention that the Jedi reject all emotions as evil or leading to the Dark Side, when it's been shown time and again that the positive emotions, such as love, can actually **_keep_** someone from falling to the dark side, or redeem them if they do fall!"

"If one stays too close to the light, they will blind themselves," Jaden said, nodding. "And if one walks too far into the dark, they will lose their path. I have always believed that the key to understanding the force is to walk the middle path, to understand both sides, or better yet simply take the force as one single unifying entity, not divided in such a black and white manner."

"Which is a big problem, since considering such an idea is anathema to both camps," said Boc. "And of course, if I remember correctly, Dorjander Kace was a former Jedi who founded an order of Force-users under the Mand'alor, calling themselves the Mandalorian Knights. He did this all because of his love for a Mandalorian woman. Of course I'm not sure how this affects the way of the Force, but…"

"True…" Takeshi remarked. "Anyway, we can tackle philosophical issues later - right now we have more important matters to deal with - namely, dealing with the Triple-S-Class Charlie-Foxtrot everyone in this game just got dropped into."

Jaden nodded. "Yeah," he said. "We need to get the Guild started. Iego is fine for now, but we need a better base of operations sometime in the future. But it's good enough so that we can all get a good breather, and decide our next move."

"Right… part of me would suggest Tython, but I don't think they'd have the proper facilities for us," Takeshi remarked. "Coruscant's got the opposite problem - tech base and facilities are fine, but it's practically the center of the galaxy, and will be totally swamped. Our other options are to either find a world with a decent tech base, yet still out of the way, or build our own space station somewhere." He paused. "Shion, Enthree, Shala, any ideas?"

The two humans, plus one droid, all hummed in thought.

"Well, there is the abandoned Rebel Base on Dantooine, then there is the Multiple abandoned bases on Rhen Var from the Clone Wars," Shala stated.

"The Rebel Base on Yavin 4 would work, too," Shion remarked. "The Alliance booked it out of there after they blew up the Death Star - I **_think_** the Imperials would have gone through, looked for stragglers, and left by now - don't think they have any garrison forces in the system."

Enthree then began making a series of beeps and whistles, and for some strange reason, Jaden and Boc could understand him.

_I also have three other locations in my databanks that could suffice: The WTG Trade Settlement on the Wawaatt Archipelago on Kashyyyk, the abandoned Death Watch Base on Zanbar, and the deserted Governor's Castle on Galidraan._

Boc blinked at that. "Wait, the Galidraan Governor's Castle is abandoned? What about his successors?" he asked.

"Something tells me it ended when Jango tortured and killed the bastard," Jaden said, before he smirked a bit. "Those are good locations… but I got one better. Lehon."

Takeshi, Boc, and the others all looked at him.

"You got the coordinates to the System? Already?" Boc asked, however Jaden shook his head.

"No, however, we have a good start," he said, as he lifted up his datapad. "Before I left Korriban, I visited the tomb of Naga Sadow, and I got the coordinates from the Star Map there. All we need to do is find the ones located at Kashyyyk, Tatooine, Dantooine, and Manaan and we'll be in business. If we're lucky, we may not even need to visit them all, since we know they have a self-repairing system, so it's possible that they've repaired themselves over the years. The Korriban Map had a lot of coordinates on it - most having been discovered by now however. Plus, I've got a few other ideas in mind… if we can time this correctly."

Boc and Takeshi blinked at that, but decided to ask him on that later.

"Okay, we got those straightened out. And now, what do we do about hardware for now?" he asked. "At the moment we have a few freighters, fighters, and transports, which I doubt could do well against the entire Imperial Star Fleet."

"Plenty of ways to get new ships," Jaden said. "If we pool the credits we make, we could buy some. We could also try to board and capture imperial and pirate ships, and if we're _really _lucky, if we get in the good graces of the Rebellion, they could send some ships our way as well."

Boc and Takeshi nodded, before a lightbulb went off in the former's head.

"Hey, what about the Katana Fleet?" he asked. "There's at least 200 ships in that whole group, and the Slave Drive Circuit could prove most useful."

"It's possible," Jaden said. "However, then it comes down to finding it. All we really have to go by is that it's somewhere in the mid-rim, in the Halm Sector, that's still a lot of space to cover."

Takeshi thought about that until it clicked in his head. "Hold on, Garm Bel Iblis had six of those _Dreadnaughts_, right?" he asked, and Jaden nodded.

"Yes, but he was given those ships," he said. "Garm didn't know the location until Han told him, he got those ships from Captain Hoffner, who sold them to him. The only two people in the galaxy who really knows the location of those ships are him, and Talon Karrde."

Boc sighed at that. "That means we have to look for those two, which is like trying to find a needle in haystack," he said. "This is going to be a lot of work. Not to mention if we DO find those Heavy Cruisers, we gotta be careful of any lingering Hive Virus on the ships."

Shala spoke up at that. "Well, I doubt Hoffner would just leave his precious prizes out there unprotected, he would need to be in a System near it's location." she said.

"True," Jaden said nodding, "And while I don't know _where _Talon is at the moment, I have a good idea where to look for him at least when the time comes."

The group nodded at that, until a voice got their attention.

"Yo guys!"

They all turned and were surprised to see Jessica approaching them, with a young man beside her. "About time you showed up!"

The three of them blinked, before they looked at her username. "Titanic?" Jaden asked, before he smiled. "Well hot damn! When did you get here?"

"Just landed some time ago," Jessica said. "Been waiting for you guys to show up for a while!" She then glanced around. "Is Ryu 'round here?"

"No, doesn't look like he got here yet," Jaden said, shaking his head. "But knowing the Canadian Bastard, he's still out there kicking ass and takin' names."

Jessica grimaced. "Don't remind me!" she remarked.

"So who is this? Your A.I. companion?" Boc asked, gesturing to Dave, and Titanic blinked, before she grinned sheepishly, and began scratching the back of her head.

"Yeah…" she murmured.

Takeshi then blinked, thinking of something. "So… that's three of us with Companion AIs, and Jorn had an encounter with an AI of Revan that Shanghaied his Tutorial… wonder if Ryu's run into any AIs yet?" He paused, as he thought of something else. "Also, anyone want to bet on if Ryu's going to try and be James Bond, and romance any female he comes across, be they player or AI?"

Jaden rolled his eyes. "Yeah, if he can do that, then I can have a freaking Harem," he muttered sarcastically.

* * *

**Meanwhile - With Ryu**

* * *

Ryu let out a sigh of relief as he slipped along the I-Beams that supported the structure up near the roof above the Tank Droid Mk VI, slowly lowering the fiberwire that had an EMP grenade on the end he was lowering until it was about even height with the droid's sensor array. Down below were a massive array of traps that had taken him what felt like _forever _to set up.

Tying off the other end, he cut off the excess wire before sliding back along the I-beam. He pulled out his Sniper Rifle and sighted at the Droid's sensor array as it neared the EMP grenade, four steps later the grenade exploded in a powerful electrical burst that stunned it as Ryu fired off three precise shots at the weakened array, taking it out, blinding the droid as it stumbled back into the proximity of a trio of Mines, two EMPs and one of the Plasma mines, resulting in a mixed explosion of electrical energy and flames.

Five more shots forced it into several frag grenades and mines, crippling its left leg, as it tipped over, crashing into the ground.

Once it fell completely Ryu quickly ran across the I-beams, using his Dexterity score to ensure his balance until he was above the droid, pulling out the Lightsaber he activated it and carefully wrapped tape around the activation switch, then aimed at the Droid as it struggled to get back up before letting go of the of the handle, allowing the saber to drop.

It quickly bored through the reinforced armor and straight to its power core, initiating a chain reaction that consumed the droid, utterly destroying it.

"Jackpot," Ryu announced as he used some fiberwire as a improvised rope to drop down fro the I-Beams. "And the king of the world is…? Me!"

A small fanfare was heard, catching his attention as an ingame notice popped up before him.

'Congratulations, you have pwned a boss while solo without taking any damage!' it read. 'As you are the first to do so, you are being rewarded with a one of a kind Unique Skill called 'Charisma', what this skill does is massively increase your ability to persuade those around you to see your way of thinking and improve how people view you.'

Ryu smirked as he dismissed the message before moving to the Vault Door that the Droid was guarding and entered into the Vault to find several _thousand _tons of gold arrayed around it along with a suit of what _looked _like MJOLNIR Infiltrator Armor from Halo 4, only with slightly less bulky armor with black paint.

"Well now… this… is just plain _awesome!_" he shouted out ecstatically. "King of the fucking _UNIVERSE!_"

* * *

**Meanwhile - Back with the Others**

* * *

"Yeah, the guy was lucky with those twin dark elves in Gaia Online, but there is _no way _he could pull off that same miracle here in SWO," Jaden said, shaking his head.

Boc scratched the back of his head at that. "I don't know, odds are those twins might be here as well," he said. "Of course, if we do find out, I'm making sure my bedroom has soundproof walls."

"I don't need to worry 'bout it, since I'll just sleep in my ship," Jaden said, gesturing to the _Redemption._ "I'll _live _there if I have too."

"Hey. I got a freighter, so I'll just hang there for now," Jessica said.

"Now that you two mention it…" Boc said with a sigh, causing the others to chuckle at his antics.

"So, what do we do for now?" Takeshi asked. "Start setting things up? Go look for Ryu? Go recruiting?"

"Right now, I think we should check up on our new guests," Jaden said. "We may be able to convince some of them to join us."

The others nodded and turned to the group of people who had disembarked from their ships. In the center of the group were a small gathering of kids, who Jaden knew were the players that Natsuki told him. However, his focus was then on the person who was consoling the rest of them.

"Hey, don't worry now, we're safe. The nasty pirates are not gonna be bothering us again." The person whom the voice belonged to a young woman, appearing Jaden's age, of a near human species, from her pointed ears he made the guess that she was a Sephi. She had long waist-length dark pink colored hair, with Cyan blue eyes, wearing what looked to be a black and gold Kimono-like dress.

Jaden's eyes widened at her, just shocked at how beautiful she looked. '_Oh boy, here we go again…_' he thought.

The woman glanced up, as she looked at Jaden before she smiled as she walked forward towards him. "You're Jaden Takeo, right?" she asked. "Natsuki Ureimo, we talked on the Comm."

"Uhh, yeah, I remember," Jaden said, scratching the back of his head. "Nice to… meet you in person."

"Same to you," she said. "Again… thanks for what you did… you saved a lot of lives, doing what you did."

"I just… did what any moral person would do, and help," Jaden said. "I couldn't just leave you all to fend for yourselves."

Natsuki chuckled. "Regardless, thank you very much," she said, and then looked at the others. "So, these are the friends you told me about?"

"Ah, yes! Yes, these are my friends," he said. "Natsuki, this is Boc Werd," Boc nodded with a smile. "Takeshi Yamato," Takeshi bowed slightly. "And Jessica Miller." Jessica simply smiled.

"It's nice to meet you all," Natsuki said, with her own short bow. "It means a lot that you're letting us stay here for now."

Boc waved his hand. "It's nothing. After all, I'm an Honorable True Mandalorian Mercenary," he said. "Just don't compare me to the Death Watch."

"No problems there," Natsuki said, "I like Mandalorians… well, most of them at least, Death Watch being the exception."

"So, what class are you, Natsuki?" Jessica asked. "You don't look like a Combat class."

"No, I'm not," Natsuki said. shaking her head. "I picked Entertainer, since I knew most of the others would pick stuff like Soldiers, Jedi, and stuff like that, I wanted to mix things up a bit, try something different. 'Sides, I played tons of VRMMO's as a combat class."

"Makes sense, I guess," Takeshi remarked. "Myself, I always tend to go for Melee Classes, and was not planning for an exception in this one." He then looked around, seeing all the newcomers from the other ships. "So… out of curiosity, how many of your group managed to get Companion Characters? From our experiences, we've learned that Companions aren't really typical NPCs…"

"A few of them have," Natsuki said. "But a lot of the Kids never got to the point of getting their Companions before everything hit the fan… but now that you mention it, a lot of the Companions have been acting strange… if I didn't know any better, I'd say they were Players themselves or something."

"More like high-order AIs," Takeshi remarked. "I'd think it safe to say that some of them are likely Cortana-level in intelligence and ability."

"AI's?" Natsuki asked in surprise. "Seriously? I mean… I guess it would make sense, but… I know the NPC's were designed to be a realistic as possible, but being _real 100% _A.I's?"

"We were just as surprised as you are," said Boc. "At first, I thought I was trippin or something."

"Oh really?" said Shala with her hands on her hips and giving her partner a glare.

"What!?" Boc shouted in defense. "You were talking to me as if you were another player!"

Jaden sighed, as he shook his head. "Glad _I _don't have to worry about that..." He muttered, "Though it would be nice if I actually _did _have a Companion."

"You don't?" Natsuki asked in surprise, "I thought everyone started the game off with the chance for a Companion."

"Well, my tutorial got hijacked, and I ended up on Korriban slaying Sith war beasts and such," Jaden said, shrugging. "But on the bright side, I got me an _awesome_ ship, and even more awesome armor."

Natsuki, as well as the kids and older players, began to look at Jaden's armor, before it clicked into a little girl's mind.

"Wait a minute, isn't that Darth Revan's armor!?" she said in surprise.

Jaden grinned at that. "That's right," he said, before he put the infamous helmet back on. "In all of its glory, kids."

After one second of silence, Jaden suddenly found himself being _swarmed _as the kids all ran towards him, constantly asking questions.

"Oh cool! It's actually in the game?"

"Wow, it looks so real!"

"And you got the _Scimitar_? Lucky!"

"How did you get it? What were the mob levels?"

"Hey, hey!" Jaden said, trying to calm them down, however behind his mask he was smiling a bit. "Alright, if you kids wanna know how I got it, ya just gotta ask! But I tell ya, it's one heck of a story!"

Takeshi, Boc, and Jessica were all chuckling behind Jaden as he was talking to the young players. However, it was stopped when one kid, a young 10 year old boy who appeared to look like a miniature version of the Rebel Smuggler, saw Boc's armor.

"Hey guys…" he said, and two more boys looked toward him and he pointed at Boc. "Isn't that Jaster Mereel's Super Commando Armor?"

Boc blinked at that, before he grinned as well. "Indeed it is," he said. "Glad to see there are a few Mandalorians among ya." But before he could say anything else, he soon found himself swarmed by another herd of children, all asking similar questions.

"Oh my god that looks _so cool!_"

"When do we get that armor?"

"This is so cool!"

"Ah! H-Hold on a minute guys! Take it easy!" he said, as the young Bounty Hunter-class players, bombarded him with questions.

Meanwhile, both Takeshi and Jessica were laughing their butts off.

"Poor Patriot, been playing this game for only 24 hours, and already he has a fan club," Jessica said.

"Or rather, he's picked up the fan club of the man whose armor he got," Takeshi remarked with a laugh.

"HEY! Not helping!" Boc shouted. "And could someone please help me!?"

"Hehe, you're on your own Patriot!" Jaden said smirking, "Now, where to start… alright, I spawned in on Korriban, where I met this traitorous little scholar named Khan - no Star Trek jokes please…" The others simply laughed as Jaden began his story, and Boc tried to escape his new fanclub.

* * *

**_Meanwhile, in the Hoth System_**

* * *

On the ice planet, the Rebel Alliance's Echo Base is alive with activity as Technicians were tending to the many Starfighters, T-47 Speeders, and other equipment the rebels could scrounge. Standing next to one of the many T-65 X-Wings, was one Luke Skywalker, as he and his faithful Astromech Droid, R2-D2 were looking over their fighter to make sure it was in peak condition.

"Alright, let's try this one..." Luke said, as Artoo used his built-in fusion cutter on the X-Wing "Alright, a little bit more… got it!"

The Artoo unit made a few chirps and Luke chuckled. "Alright, alright, you were right." He said, "Jedi can be wrong, too."

Artoo made a snickering-like sound, before suddenly an alarm started going off, causing Luke to look up in surprise. "What the?"

"_Attention all Personnel! Unidentified ship exiting hyperspace in sector 4, inbound to Echo Base!_" said the voice of one of the Command Center staff. "_All security teams scramble and pilots man your stations!_"

"Damn it!" Luke cursed as he closed the panel. "This'll have to do, Artoo!" The Astromech Droid knew what needed to be done as it activated its Rocket Boosters and landed on top of the fighter, locking into the droid port of the fighter as Luke quickly climbed up into the cockpit.

He was thankful he was in his pilot suit, as he strapped himself in. The canopy closed as he started up the fighter.

"This is Rogue Leader to Command Center, is it an Imperial Scout ship?" asked Luke as he waited for the reply.

"_Negative… at least it doesn't look like one._" The reply came from General Carlist Rieekan. "_It's a light freighter, YT-1930 class. It's coming into Hoth's atmosphere hard and fast._"

Luke's eyes widened a bit at that.

"What are they trying to do? Get themselves killed!?" he asked in shock.

_"Hell if I know, kid!_" said the voice of Han Solo, "_but whoever is flying that thing is gonna be in for a bumpy ride!_"

"We better head out, and see where they're heading," Luke said. "General, where does it look like they'll land on the surface?"

"_Scanners show them landing somewhere near the Moorsh Moraine,_" he said. "_If you're going, I'd hurry… it looks more like a controlled crash than anything else!_"

"Copy that. Heading out!" he said, and the X-Wing lifted off and headed out toward the destination, along with two more members of Rogue Squadron, as Ground Troopers mounted on Tauntauns, with Han Solo mounting one of them.

"Come on, Chewie!" he shouted to his First Mate, the Wookiee Chewbacca, who roared in response.

* * *

**_Meanwhile - on the Transport_**

* * *

'_Shit, shit, shit, SHIT!_' The Chiss woman behind the controls of the YT-1930 cursed in her minds, as she tried to slow down the descent of her vessel. She was wearing what looked like your average smuggler attire, with short ear-length black hair. '_Come on, come on come on!_'

"I think we need to slow down!" A Bothan said, sitting in the copilot seat.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO?" The Chiss woman shouted in reply, the ship continuing to rattle as it descended through the atmosphere. "Half the damn controls are _SHOT!_"

"I KNEW we shouldn't have trusted that Dug salesman!" the Bothan shouted, as the surface of the planet Hoth was getting closer. "We're coming in too hot!"

The Chiss woman cursed as she tried to raise the nose of the Light Freighter up. They escaped the chaos that was Corellia, along with at least 6 kids that were also players. Only now it looked like they were going to die due to a faulty used Freighter.

"Come on, stay up! Stay up!" She shouted, as the vessel broke through the atmosphere, she could see the snowy plains before them. "We're coming in for a rough landing!"

* * *

**_With Rogue Squadron_**

* * *

The three X-Wings of Rogue Squadron approached the projected landing point of the YT-1930, as it prepared it's crash landing. Luke saw the freighter on his scanners, and he noticed that the ship was in deep trouble, trailing smoke and fire.

"_They certainly look like they're in trouble,_" Wedge Antilles said. "_Looks like they've been through some kind of brawl, damn thing's falling apart._"

"Which means we gotta escort 'em in," Luke said in realization. "Rogue 2 & 3, stay on my wing, and Wedge, try to get them on the horn."

"_Got it, Rogue Leader._" Wedge said, as Luke continued to look at the freighter. "_Attention unidentified freighter, this is Rogue Flight. We see you are in a critical situation, and we can attempt to lend you assistance, please reply, over._"

There was a long pause, before the comm crackled back to life, some static still in the air "_ell...ello? Are you recieving…_" A female voice said on the commlink, "_is the Freighter _Blackfin,_ half of our damn controls are shot, we can't…_"

_"Slow down, captain. And listen to me very carefully. We're reading you, but you're breaking up a bit," _said Wedge, as the freighter came into view, and the three Rebel Starfighters began to catch up to the _Blackfin_. _"We're taking positions alongside you."_

"_R-Right… J-Just tell us what to do here,_" she said. "_We can't lower our landing gear or anything…_"

Luke sighed at that, it looked like the _Blackfin _was gonna have to do a crash landing. Wedge possibly came up with the same conclusion as he began to talk to the captain again.

_"Alright, just follow my instructions, it looks like you're gonna have to crash land,"_ Wedge said. _"Try to move your nose up, we may be able to help you out in a belly land on the snow and ice."_

"_Alright… here goes…_" she said, as slowly, the small freighter's nose began to tip up, still in its descent but was more capable of a successful belly land at the least.

_"That's good… now, are your flaps and drag fin controls still working?" _Wedge asked.

"_Some of them… a lot of them aren't responding,_" She said, as the few flaps activated, but not nearly enough to do much in terms of slowing down the craft.

Luke could hear the desperate tone in the woman's voice as he continued to watch the YT-1930 fall like a rock. He cursed in his mind, asking no one in particular of what he could do.

**_"Use the Force, Luke..."_**

Luke blinked as he glanced around, '_Ben?_' He thought.

"**_Luke, trust me._**"

Luke glanced at the Transport, as it continued to fall. '_Could I really _move _that thing?_' He thought, not seeing how the Force could move such an object… however, he realized that unless he did something everyone on that ship was as good as dead. Sighing, he closed his eyes, and reached out through the force.

At first, nothing happened, but then, slowly, but surely, the _Blackfin _tilted up, before more of the drag fins and flaps opened into place.

In the transport, the Chiss and and the Bothan's eyes widen in surprise, as everything was moving on it's own…

"What the?" said the Bothan. "I thought you said they were dead!"

"They were - and still are!" the Chiss shouted. "Don't look at me, I didn't do anything!"

The two continued to look at each other, until they looked outside, their focus on the escort of Rebel fighters.

"You don't think one of them is..." the Bothan said, while the Chiss understood what was going on.

"No way it's..." she whispered. "It couldn't be… _him, _right?"

"_Alright, you're good! Just keep on this angle!_" Wedge said on the Comm. "_Get ready for a bumpy landing! _"

The two smuggler pilots shook their heads as they turned their focus back to the task at hand.

"Here we go!" the Chiss said. "Time to put our head between our knees and…" What he was about to say was cut off as the Transport finally hit the snow, bouncing once as it trailed down along the ground, picking up snow and ice as it crashed down, the cockpit rattling as it continued down. However, after what felt like an eternity, the transport finally slowed down to a halt.

_"This is Rogue flight, the freighter's down on the deck!" _said Wedge as the three X-Wings went into a protective circle over the ship. "_I don't see any major fires… are you alright in there?_"

The Chiss glanced around, before she sighed as she realized they were no longer falling "Yeah… yeah we're alright…" she said, as she relaxed in the cockpit chair. "That… was too close…"

_"That's good to hear... Rescue team is inbound," _said Wedge, and the woman nodded at that.

"Copy, thanks for the help. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to check on my passengers," she said, and she swore she could feel the pilot of the X-wing blink.

"_How many are onboard your ship?" _the Rebel asked_._

The Chiss sighed. "About eight… mostly kids, really," she said.

It was quiet for a little bit until she heard his voice.

_"Wait… did you just say _kids?" Wedge asked in surprise as he shared the same reaction as his wingmates.

"Yeah… It's a little difficult to explain, but…"

"Let's just say we just came from a serious shitstom involving Imperials," the Bothan said. "And it was either leave those kids behind, or take 'em with us."

The Chiss looked at him like he had grown a second head, but her co-pilot just made a 'shush' gesture and mouthed the words 'Trust me...' as Wedge's voice spoke up again.

_"We'll need you to tell us more at the base. Just stay inside the ship until the ground team arrives," _he said, and the Chiss responded.

"Understood…" she said, and the transmission ended before she turned a glare at her partner. "What the FUCK was that!?"

"Had to come up with _something,_" he said. "Remember, these guy's don't realize that this is a VRMMORPG to us, and they _certainly _won't understand if we know things about the Star Wars universe before they happen. I had to come up with some sort of cover story for us!"

The Chiss only blinked as she processed her First Mate's words, before she sighed in exasperation.

"What the hell…" she said, "…well, while we're waiting for our friends to pick us up, let's go check on the others."

The Bothan nodded as they both stood up and headed toward the back of the ship to check on their precious cargo.

* * *

**Minutes later - outside the crash site**

* * *

Approaching the crash site from the ground was Han and Chewbacca, along with a dozen or so Rebel Troopers, all arriving on Tauntauns and a single old Republic LAAT/i Transport, with the fighters of Rogue Squadron covering them from above. "Alright, let's do this before a storm blows in!" Han shouted. "Let's get those people out of there!"

The Smuggler/Rebel Officer then dismounted his Tauntaun mount with his faithful partner following his lead. The other Rebels also dismounted, and followed the duo toward the downed freighter.

"Oh man, what a mess," Han said, taking in the damage that the Freighter took. Chewie then made a series of low growls.

"I don't know buddy. This tub of bolts will take some time to fix," he said, and smirked. "Of course, that never stopped us when it came to the _Falcon_."

The Wookiee gave out a chuckle as they moved to the top of the freighter - since it belly-landed they had to access it through the top boarding hatch. As they stepped on top of it, Han tapped the top of it with a Hydrospanner. "Open up! Rescue's here." He shouted out.

They waited for a few seconds, until the hatch begin to open but stopped halfway. Han fought the urge to slap himself. However, he could hear the person on the other side of the hatch.

"Aw, son of a… come on!" shouted a female voice, causing the Smuggler and Wookiee to blink in confusion as they heard the sound of metal on metal. "Open up, you piece of shit!" A few moments passed before the door snapped open, and a female Chiss woman's head poked out, "Sorry 'bout that… bit of advice though: NEVER buy a ship from a Dug Merchant - they WILL Rip you off."

Han was speechless for a moment, but nodded his head. "Duly noted," he said as he reached his hand to the Chiss, who gratefully grabbed it. "Welcome to Hoth, a place where it's cold all the time, and the weather sucks."

"So I've noticed," the Chiss said as she stepped out. "Name's Sev'oro'Kleotar, though everyone calls me Sevo for short."

"Same with all Chiss, I suppose," Han said and then looked back at the hatch, and his eyes blinked when the next ones to come out were a few kids, and a Bothan.

Sevo saw his attention on the kids, who were being helped by the Troopers to stay warm, except for those whose species had fur or were used to the cold. "It's a _long _story," she said, answering the unasked question, "involving a _lot_ of Imperials we pissed off at Corellia."

Han had a feeling that wasn't the whole truth, but decided to ask questions later, seeing that the kids who were human were going to freeze to death if they don't get back to base. He nodded, and then activated his comm.

"Okay, bring the Larty down. We got eight kids that need to get into the base to stay warm," he said.

"_Roger that, bringing her down,_" the pilot said, as the Larty descended down, lowering down to the ground so they could board the craft. Many of the children watched it landing with wide eyes.

"Whoa,"

"So cool!"

"It's an LAAT from the Clone Wars! Awesome!"

Han couldn't help but chuckle at the kids' enthusiasm. Of course, he slightly envied them for their childhood innocence. "Alright kids, enough ogling, let's get you out of here," he said as he helped the kids up onto the LAAT, as they all eagerly climbed onboard.

* * *

**_Star Wars Online_**** Administration/Development Team offices, San Francisco, California**

* * *

"If we find that son of a bitch, I call dibs on killing him."

The speaker's fellow administrators and developers agreed with the man currently modifying his NervGear to make sure that it wouldn't kill him if he tried to log out or was killed in-game. He tried having these modifications made to all NGs prior to the game's release, but the bastard responsible for creating them vetoed that idea, saying it wasn't necessary.

"You know, Ron, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you had it in for Akihito." One of the Developers said.

The black-blonde haired Ronald Pinkerton, leader of the weapons physics and basic space combat dev team, scoffed. "I saw that he had a big fucking dose of megalomania, but nothing like THIS," he said. "I'll make contact with a few players in-game: the sheer amount of firepower I'll be bringing into the fight will make things easier."

"You can't bring that _Scimitar_ of yours over from the test server," another developer exclaimed. "You know that."

"Not without all of us agreeing on it, I know," Ron said rolling his eyes. "The dev ships are God ships."

"It's more than that," the third Developer said. "The _Scimitar _is a vessel from _Star Trek,_ and you will be going into a _Star Wars _VRMMORPG. Do you know how many hardcore _Star Wars _fans have probably logged in? They'll _CRUCIFY _you if they see you with a Trekkie ship before you could even try to help them!"

"We've done enough research into _Star Wars _that I know what I'm dealing with," Ron said, "Besides, I'm using the downgraded version for main-game use."

"It's still got the _Scimitar _skin," the third developer warned.

"Does it look like I give a fuck?" he shot back. "The end result - saving the players - is all you should be caring about, not the ship I use to do the job."

"It's not just that," the first Developer said. "Kayaba has practically hijacked all control of the servers from the GM's, and he has almost complete control of the game - we're just lucky enough we found that its still possible for people to login so you could try this… but we have no idea what he'll do if he discovers you in the servers."

"We still have access to the source code," Ron said. "I'll be able to upgrade my 'team's' equipment to five levels higher and he won't be able to kill me without physically entering this room. The second that he tries, use my M870 on the fucker." That was a pointed reference to the Remington M870 shotgun Ron owned and had stored in the next room over.

"I still think this is a bad idea," she fourth developer said.

"Shove it. It's the only chance we've got to redeem ourselves for this and to save two million lives," Ron said as he placed the NG on his head. "Wish me luck."

* * *

**Coruscant - With Ryu**

* * *

Ryu chuckled as he stepped out of the Guild Register's office, both player controlled and AI controlled Heads turning as he passed, his new armor _did _stand out quite a bit…

"Now…" he murmured as he stepped up to the Player General Forum board that was located on every planet for general announcements and Player-to-Player trading. "Should I do a general recruitment? Or personal recruitment… ah, how about this…"

A holographic keyboard appeared before him as he began typing.

'_Black Market Guild Recruiting,_' he put in. "_All Applicants must bring High-Level intel or High Priced items to start the trading with._"

With a smirk he posted the message and moved away, heading for his ship. As he moved, however, he could feel the presence of somebody following him, chuckling ever so slightly be ducked into an alleyway and used a grappling hook to pull himself up several stories and cloaked himself before looking down to see who was following him.

"Dammit, when the hell did that asshole go?" A member of a trio of players questioned as he entered into the alleyway.

"I don't know, but that armor of his looks to be of an Artifact-level," the second murmured. "So it probably has special qualities, be careful."

Ryu smirked as he pulled out a trio of frag grenades and triggered them before simply dropping them into the midst of the trio.

Hearing a clatter, the three looked at each other, before noticing the grenades and paling. "FUCK!" one of them shouted shortly before the grenades exploded, throwing the three back, very nearly killing them.

Ryu dropped down and decloaked himself before approaching the three. "Next time, raise your sneaking skill if you want to follow someone," he told them. "Don't let me catch you again or I'm dropping thermal detonators on you."

His piece said, he left the Alleyway and continued on his way to the hanger. '_Now… to find a stronghold…_' he thought to himself. "Well, should be interesting…"

* * *

**Corellia - Corellia City spaceport**

* * *

Most of the players were ignoring him, as they thought he was just another NPC. He didn't look amazing or different, but that was the point. Ronald Pinkerton did not like standing out on the ground without a damn good reason. His personal short-range transport was the infamous _Lambda_-Class shuttle from _Episodes 5 _and _6_, and while it wasn't powerful, it didn't need to be. All it needed to do was get him into orbit.

Ron planted his ass in the chair, closing the hatch. "Great. Alright, time to find a few players that might get me closer to the end." He said. The Imperial shuttle entered high Corellia orbit, and suddenly disappeared off the scopes. In reality, it had entered a cloaking field belonging to his personal dreadnought. Big, angular, intimidating and generally shaped like a bird whose wings were in the downward part of the wingbeat, it was a near-perfect copy of the famed Star Trek vessel _Scimitar_. The only difference was the amount of power she had.

If this copy and the real _Scimitar _clashed, the original would destroy it as it was more powerful, had superior shields and was just generally better. Still, the IRW _Khepesh_ was more than a match for the Empire's _Executor_-Class SSDs and would stand a fair chance against the ships from the Vong and One Sith eras. "Ok, time to find a few players that actually give a fuck about leaving this godforsaken game."

* * *

**117Jorn: And as we promised, one more chapter! And as you can see, one of our best friends has now joined the fray!**

**Titanic X: Yep! And things are only about to get even crazier from here on out!**

**Ron the True Fan: (Screaming bloody murder while strafing a planet with his _Scimitar_)**

**Takeshi Yamato: Lucky. Well, it's definitely heating up.**

**Patriot-112: So until next time…**

**Everyone: JA NE!**


End file.
